The recent 2024 World Series, in which the Los Angeles Dodgers ran out winners in five games against the New York Yankees, became the most-viewed series since 2017.
The Fall Classic attracted more than 30 million combined average viewers across North America and Asia, with FOX Sports reporting 15.8 million average viewers in the US, a 67% increase from last season’s World Series and the most watched series since the 2017 World Series.
Much of the MLB’s showcase finale viewership figures can be attributed to the 18-34 year-old demographic making up most of the viewership, which increased 101% from the 2023 World Series.
The Shohei Ohtani effect
Becoming a World Series champion for the first time in his MLB career, Dodgers and Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani helped make the 2024 World Series the most-watched ever in Japan, where there were 12.1 million average viewers.
Ohtani was competing in the MLB postseason for the first time in his career also, with the two-time AL MVP and four-time MLB All-Star winning the World Series in his first year with the Dodgers in the process.
The series featured the two most-watched postseason games in Japan’s history – game two (15.9m), game one (14.4m) – and the three most-watched MLB postseason games ever during a non-holiday weekday (game three: 10.1m; game four: 10.2m and game five: 10m).
Viewership in Canada, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Taiwan, as well as on the MLB app, recorded its highest World Series viewership in history, pushing the average global viewership past 30 million viewers.
Attendance’s highest since 2003
With two storied and historically significant franchises located in the two largest sports markets, the Yankee Stadium and Dodger Stadium recorded a total attendance of over 253,000 over the five games.
The average attendance was 50,621, making it the highest average attendance since the 2003 World Series between the Yankees and the Florida Marlins.
With a total attendance of 1.92 million, the 2024 MLB postseason was the second highest of all-time behind the 2003 postseason.
Social Media & Digital Engagement continues to be vital
Sports leagues are continually focusing on attracting more engagement and views on digital and social media platforms, and the MLB is no exception.
The 2024 World Series saw the most engagements and views of any six day stretch in MLB history, as well as recording the most social interactions in World Series history witnessing a 176% increase in engagements and 209% increase in video views compared to last year.
Posts from the first day of the 2024 World Series totaled the most engagements (14.3m) and second most video views (160.1m) of any date in MLB history. The 2024 Postseason garnered the most social interactions in postseason history with 68% more engagements and 63% more video views than the previous World Series.
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