NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball is having its most-viewed postseason in the U.S. since 2017 through the League Championship Series.
Viewership is averaging 4.48 million according to MLB and Nielsen, a 13% increase over last year.
Most of the gains are due to the first two rounds. The AL Championship Series on Fox, Fox Sports 1, Fox Deportes and streaming averaged 4.99 million viewers across the seven games.
That is even with last year’s ALCS on TNT Sports, where the New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Guardians in five games.
Fox and TNT Sports alternate leagues each season.
TNT Sports was hurt by the Los Angeles Dodgers posting a four-game sweep over the Milwaukee Brewers, and Shohei Ohtani’s epic three-homer game and 10-strikeout performance taking place on a Friday night and averaging 3.51 million.
The series averaged 4.7 million, a 17% decline from last year’s six-game series between the New York Mets and Dodgers on Fox.
The over the Seattle Mariners in Game 7 averaged 9.03 million, making it the most-watched ALCS game in eight years. The audience peaked at 12.35 million for the ninth inning.
MLB has also seen substantial growth in Canada and Japan.
Toronto’s victory putting it in the World Series for the first time since 1993 averaged 6 million in Canada and was the most-watched Blue Jays game on Sportsnet in Canada.
Ohtani’s averaged 10.26 million viewers in Japan, the second most-watched LCS game in the country’s history. The 16-hour time difference between Tokyo and Los Angeles meant the game was taking place on Saturday morning in Japan.
The NLCS averaged an LCS record 7.34 million in Japan, a 26% increase over last year as fans continue to follow Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki, in record numbers.
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