The Los Angeles Dodgers’ exciting 6-3 win against the New York Yankees in Game 1 of the World Series on Friday night ended with Freddie Freeman hitting a walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning. The game attracted an average of 15.2 million viewers across Fox, Fox Deportes, Univision, and streaming platforms, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game in five years.
This was only the fourth time since 2018 that a World Series game had more than 15 million viewers. The last instance was the seventh game in the 2019 series, where Washington beat Houston 6-2 to win its first championship, averaging 23 million viewers.
“Ratings were really good last night,” said Commissioner Rob Manfred before Game 2 on Saturday. “I see this matchup as an opportunity to kind of amplify everything we’ve been working on for the last few years.
Focus on the players, trying to grow the game into a more national product, international growth, young people. And, you know, when you get a stage like this, it’s an opportunity to take a step forward.”
According to Nielsen, the viewership peaked at 17.8 million during the 10th inning until the game ended.
This audience was a 62% increase compared to last year’s first game between the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks. The Rangers’ 6-5 win over the Diamondbacks in 11 innings averaged 9.35 million viewers, making it the least-watched Game 1 on record.
Friday’s game was the most-watched Game 1 since Los Angeles’ 3-1 win over the Houston Astros in 2017, which averaged 15.33 million viewers. It was also the most-viewed Friday broadcast on Fox since Game 3 in 2017, which had 15.68 million viewers.
The game received a 19.1 rating and a 58 share in Los Angeles, and a 13.2 rating and a 37 share in New York.
The rating shows the percentage of TV households that were watching, while the share indicates the percentage of the audience that was watching at that moment.
Manfred mentioned he is looking forward to seeing the ratings from Japan in the next day or two, as it was early Saturday afternoon in Japan during Game 1.
