The highly anticipated 2024 World Series may have only lasted five games, but it still attracted a lot of attention from around the world.

Wednesday’s Game 5 showdown between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees averaged 18.6 million viewers across the FOX, FOX Deportes and FOX Sports streaming services, the relations team announced Thursday public network. The audience peaked at 21.3 million before the final inning, just as the Dodgers took a 7-6 lead and clinched their second championship in five years.

That makes it the most-watched Game 5 since 2017, when the Dodgers faced the Houston Astros. This is a 58% increase from Game 5 of the 2023 World Series between the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks.

Overall, the 2024 World Series averaged 15.8 million viewers, also the best number since 2017. This represents a 67% year-over-year increase.

The spike in interest also extended to surrounding programming, with FOX’s World Series pregame coverage earning its highest ratings since 2021. Overall, the MLB playoffs on FOX and FS1 scored 42% higher than in 2023, again only surpassed. by 2017.

Beyond the World Series which attracted its largest audience in seven years, baseball has also established itself as an essential point of culture compared to other major sporting events.

As noted Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Timesthe World Series average audience of 15.8 million eclipsed the 2024 NBA Finals average audience of 11.3 million between the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks.

None of that includes the record numbers coming out of Japan, with Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto each taking center stage for the Dodgers.

All the stars and big brands did what they expected at this year’s Fall Classic, which surely pleased MLB and FOX executives. And even though the series was shorter than expected, there was still plenty of drama to satisfy the millions of fans who also watched.

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