World Series Grabs Biggest Game 1 Audience Since 2017 as Dodgers Score Dramatic Walk-Off Win Against Yankees

The World Series got off to a good start for Fox on Friday as the game that ended in a dramatic walk-off 6-3 win for the Los Angeles Dodgers over the New York Yankees delivered the largest Game 1 audience for the fall classic since 2017.

Fox Sports reported that an average of 15.2 million viewers tuned in to see the Dodgers defeat the Yankees at home in the 10th inning. Dodgers slugger Freddie Freeman hit a picture-perfect walk-off home run with bases loaded. Viewership peaked at 17.8 million at 11:30 p.m. ET through the final half-hour of the game, per Fox.

The game aired across Fox Sports’ linear and digital platforms, as well as cabler Fox Deportes and Spanish-language giant Univision, which partnered with Fox for the World Series.

The rarity of a Yankees-Dodgers World Series has boosted interset in this year’s MLB championship round. Viewership was up 62% from 2023’s Game 1 between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Texas Rangers. That game didn’t crack 10 million viewers (9.3 million viewers).

In 2017, the kick off to the Houston Astros-Dodgers series, which would become a scandalous black-eye for the Astros following a sign-stealing and cheating scandal, brought in 15.3 million viewers, per Fox.

In the battle of West Coast-East Coast fandoms, Los Angeles won Friday by a wide margin. The game averaged a 19.1 household rating and 58 share in the L.A. market. In New York, the nation’s largest TV market, the fall classic grabbed a 13.2/37 in the same measures — meaning that a far bigger proportion of L.A. TV viewers were tuned in to the game live than were Yankees fans in New York.

Fox noted that Friday’s game marked its highest-rated telecast on a Friday night since it carried Game 3 of the 2017 Astros-Dodgers World Series.

(Pictured: Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman after hitting the game-winning home run)