Dodgers-Yankees series drew more than 30 million combined average viewers across North America and Asia.
Major League Baseball (MLB) has announced that the Los Angeles Dodgers’ World Series win over the New York Yankees generated record domestic and international viewership, merchandise sales, attendances and social media engagement.
Confirmed:
- Five-game series drew more than 30 million viewers across North America and Asia
- This year’s Fall Classic was the most-watched World Series ever in Japan with an average of 12.1 million viewers
- Sales of Dodgers’ title-winning merchandise set a record for the first 24 hours following any championship clinch, across all sports, according to MLB ecommerce partner Fanatics
- On social media, the World Series delivered the most engagements and views of any six-day stretch in MLB history
- Dodgers-Yankees series delivered a 176 per cent increase in engagements and 209 per cent surge in video views compared to 2023 World Series
- Of the 210 million views on MLB’s YouTube 61 per cent were attributed to international viewers, marking a 210 per cent increase
- 2024 World Series saw a total attendance of 253,104 over five games
- Average attendance was 50,621 per game – the highest since 2003
Context:
The added interest in this year’s World Series in Asia can largely be attributed to Japanese stars Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani, who were making their first appearance in the MLB postseason. Ohtani, who was 89th on SportsPro’s list of the world’s Most Marketable Athletes for 2024, ranked as the most popular among player-specific merchandise sales.
Meanwhile, the series featured the two most-watched postseason games in Japan’s history – game one was watched by 14.4 million fans and game two by15.9 million – and the three most-watched MLB postseason games ever during a non-holiday weekday.
MLB said viewership in Canada, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Taiwan, as well as on the MLB app, which recorded its best World Series ever, pushed the average global viewership past the 30 million mark, with additional countries still to report.
The announcement of the international viewership comes after it was already revealed that this year’s World Series was the most-watched edition domestically since 2017, with an average of 15.8 million viewers on Fox and Fox Deportes.
It caps off a fine season for MLB, which reported increases in attendance and youth viewership following the regular season.
Credit: https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/mlb-world-series-viewership-social-media-merchandise-attendances-november-2024/