MLB Division Series viewership hits multi-year high, with all series averaging over three million viewers

The MLB Division Series is in the books, and viewership has hit a multi-year high for the league.

All four series averaged at least three million viewers, with Guardians-Yankees leading the pack with 4.093 million viewers for its five-game slate (which includes a pair of rescheduled games due to rainouts and a third game that aired on TNT thanks to the marathon Astros-Mariners Game 3). The series featured both the most (Game 1, 5.345 million on TBS) and least (Game 3, 2.208 million on TNT) watched games of the round.

The four game upsets in the National League were pretty close in average viewership. The Phillies’ win over the Braves averaged 3.183 million viewers, while the Padres’ upset over the Dodgers averaged 3.162 million viewers. The Phillies-Braves series had the benefit of Games 1 and 2 airing on Fox’s broadcast network, and the second drew an NL-high 4.196 million viewers. All four Padres-Dodgers games aired in primetime or later on FS1, topping out with 4.074 million viewers for Game 3.

All three Astros-Mariners games on TBS started in the afternoon, and viewership steadily increased as the series went along. Houston’s 18 inning win in Saturday’s Game 3 averaged 4.092 million viewers, more than all but two college football games that weekend.

The 13 games in the Division Series round averaged 3.446 million viewers across Fox, FS1, TBS, and the one game on TNT.

Overall, viewership was MLB’s average for the round since 2017, up from 2018, 2019, 2020 (where just one series even averaged over two million), and 2021 (where three of the four series fell under an average of three million).

[Data via ShowBuzz Daily]