New York Yankees outfielder Alex Verdugo (24), outfielder Aaron Judge (99) and outfielder Juan Soto (22) celebrate Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images

A do-or-die Game 4 for the New York Yankees commanded the largest baseball audience in several years.

Game 4 of the World Series, which took place on Tuesday between the aforementioned Yanks and the Los Angeles Dodgers, averaged 16.7 million viewers on Fox, Fox Deportes, and streaming.

Per Sports Media Watch, it was the most-watched Major League Baseball game since Game 7 of the 2019 World Series between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.22 million viewers.

The Fall Classic is averaging 14.98 million viewers through four games, including Spanish-language telecasts and streaming. That’s good for the most-watched World Series since the Astros-Dodgers went seven games in 2017 and averaged 18.9 million viewers.

One can safely assume that the longer this series goes, the higher that average will climb.

Tuesday’s series-saving win for the Yankees increased 92% year-over-year compared to Game 4 of the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks last season (8.48 million viewers). It’s the most-watched Game 4 since the Cleveland Guardians (Indians) and Chicago Cubs drew 16.71 million viewers in 2016.

Game 4 was arguably the series’ first game with a favorable time slot.

Games 1 and 2 were played on Friday and Saturday, the two least-watched days of the week, with Game 2 competing with college football. Game 3 was played directly against Monday Night Football on ABC and ESPN and virtually tied the New York Giants-Pittsburgh Steelers game in viewership.

Conversely, Tuesday’s Game 4 was played with little national competition outside of regular-season NBA and NHL games.

As noted by SMW, Game 4 outdrew every single NBA game since 2019, and ranks as the second most-watched sporting event of the year behind the NCAA women’s basketball national championship when excluding football and the Olympics.

Should the Yankees win Game 5 on Wednesday, the series will return to Los Angeles for Games 6 and 7 on Friday and Saturday. And while those aren’t traditionally strong viewing days, it’s safe to say that if this series returns to the West Coast, the viewership numbers will really start to pop.

[Fox Sports PR, Sports Media Watch]

About Drew Lerner

Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.