The Major League Baseball (MLB) is experiencing its most-watched postseason in the United States since 2017, according to data collected through the League Championship Series (LCS).
The average audience sits at 4.48 million viewers, a 13% increase compared to the previous year, according to reports from MLB and Nielsen.
Much of this growth is due to the first two rounds of the competition. The American League Championship Series (ALCS), broadcast on Fox, Fox Sports 1, Fox Deportes, and streaming platforms, averaged 4.99 million viewers across the seven games.
This number is similar to that of last year’s ALCS.
Shohei Ohtani’s performance, including his three home runs and 10 strikeouts in Game 4, captured attention, although the game was played on a Friday night, averaging 3.51 million viewers.
The series averaged 4.7 million, a 17% decrease compared to the six-game series from the previous year.
The Toronto Blue Jays’ victory over the Seattle Mariners in Game 7, with a score of 4-3, drew 9.03 million viewers, becoming the most-watched ALCS game in eight years. The audience peaked at 12.35 million in the ninth inning.
MLB has also noted significant growth in Canada and Japan.
Toronto’s victory, which took them to the World Series for the first time since 1993, averaged 6 million viewers in Canada and was the most-watched Blue Jays game on Sportsnet in that country.
Ohtani’s outstanding performance in Game 4 drew 10.26 million viewers in Japan, the second most-watched LCS game in the country’s history. The 16-hour time difference between Tokyo and Los Angeles meant the game was broadcast on Saturday morning in Japan.
The NLCS averaged a record 7.34 million viewers in Japan, a 26% increase from the previous year. Fans continue to follow Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Roki Sasaki in record numbers.
