World Series viewership up significantly in 2024

Thanks to excitement like Freddie Freeman’s walk-off, grand slam in Game 1, the viewership for the 2024 World Series was up significantly this year. Photo: Topps

November 1, 2024

Official MLB News Release

The 2024 World Series generated large increases and record fan engagement across domestic and international viewership, merchandise sales, attendance and social media as the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees in five games.

VIEWERSHIP

The Fall Classic drew more than 30 million combined average viewers across North America and Asia. As reported by FOX, World Series viewership in the U.S. averaged 15.8 million across its platforms, a +67% increase versus last year and the most-watched series since the seven-game 2017 World Series.

Younger fans drove the significant gains with the 18-34 year-old demographic increasing by +101% making it the largest increase of any of the demos. The World Series delivered for FOX the most-watched single-network telecast across all of television on each of the five nights games were played.

Featuring the first appearance in the Postseason by Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, it was the most-watched World Series ever in Japan with an average of 12.1 million viewers. The series featured the two most-watched Postseason games in Japan’s history (Game Two: 15.9 million, Game One: 14.4 million) and the three most-watched MLB Postseason games ever during a non-holiday weekday (Game Three: 10.1 million; Game Four: 10.2 million and Game Five: 10 million). All World Series games aired live at 9 a.m. local time in Japan through Fuji TV, NHK BS, and J Sports. Games One and Two aired on the weekend in Japan and the other games aired during weekday mornings.

Viewership in Canada, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Taiwan as well as on the MLB app, which recorded its best World Series in history, pushed the average global viewership past 30 million viewers with additional countries still to report. The World Series was available in more than 203 countries and territories through 162 media distributors in 16 different languages.

MERCHANDISE SALES

Dodgers World Series clinch products set a record for the first 24 hours of sales following any Championship clinch, across all sports, according to digital sports platform Fanatics, MLB’s official e-commerce partner. In the first 24 hours following the championship victory, sales were higher than the 2020 Dodgers by +24%, 2021 Braves by +43% and 2016 Cubs by +24%. Japan ranked as the second highest country in sales behind the U.S.

Ohtani ranked as the most popular among player-specific merchandise followed by Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Yamamoto and Clayton Kershaw. Seconds after the final out, Fanatics launched more than 850 unique World Series Champions products from dozens of MLB licensees to celebrate the moment. The data is from sales across the Fanatics network of online stores, including MLBShop.com and Fanatics.com.

Game One at Dodger Stadium and Game Three at Yankee Stadium set an all-time record as the top two games for merchandise sales in World Series history. Merchandise sales at the MLB Flagship Store in New York City set an all-time sales record for the World Series dating back to its opening in 2020.

ATTENDANCE

With a total attendance of 253,104 over five games, World Series attendance was 50,621 per game making it the highest average attendance since 2003. With a total attendance of 1,920,165, the 2024 Postseason was the second highest of all-time trailing only 2003. MLB Ballpark app usage was up +7% for the Postseason and +9% during the World Series compared to 2023.

SOCIAL MEDIA AND DIGITAL

The 2024 World Series marked the most engagements and views of any six-day stretch in MLB history. The 2024 World Series also registered the most social interactions in World Series history marking a +176% increase in engagements and +209% surge in video views compared to 2023. 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 2023 Postseason.

World Series increases by platforms are listed below:

-Instagram: +166% in engagements, +300% in video views vs. 2023.

-X (formerly Twitter): +319% in engagements, +397% in video views vs. 2023.

-TikTok: +163% in engagements, +104% in video views vs. 2023.

-Facebook: +194% in engagements, +143% in video views vs. 2023.

-YouTube: +170% in engagements, +203% in video views vs. 2023.

Demonstrating how fans outside the United States consume the World Series in different time zones, 61% of the 210 million views on MLB’s YouTube were attributed to international viewers marking a +210% increase. Japan was the top country on YouTube making up 20% of international viewership on the platform.