The Los Angeles Dodgers’ dramatic 6-3 victory over the New York Yankees in Game 1 of the World Series on Friday night — which ended on Freddie Freeman’s walk off grand slam in the 10th inning — averaged 15.2 million viewers on Fox, Fox Deportes, Univision and streaming, making it the most watched Fall Classic game in five years.
It was only the fourth time in 36 World Series games since 2018 that the audience has cracked 15 million. The last one before Friday was the seventh and deciding game in the 2019 series, when Washington’s 6-2 victory over Houston for its first championship averaged 23 million.
“Ratings were really good last night,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said 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 audience peaked at 17.8 million from the 10th inning until the game’s conclusion.
It was a 62% increase over 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, and was the least-viewed Game 1 on record.
Friday’s game was the most-watched Game 1 since Los Angeles’ 3-1 victory over the Houston Astros in 2017 averaged 15.33 million. It also was the most-viewed Friday broadcast on Fox since Game 3 in 2017 (15.68 million).
The game had a 19.1 rating and 58 share in Los Angeles and 13.2 rating and 37 share in New York.
The rating is the percentage of television households tuned in. The share refers to a percentage of the audience viewing it at the time.
Manfred said he is hoping to see the ratings from Japan in the next day or two. It was early Saturday afternoon in Japan for Game 1.
