A tight, dramatic Game 7 was enough to nudge the 2023 NLCS above the ALCS, becoming MLB’s most-watched LCS round since 2019.
The Game 7 broadcast averaged 9.1 million viewers over TBS, truTV, and Max, the most-watched MLB game of the 2023 season so far. It’s a far better Game 7 number than the ALCS drew Monday on Fox and FS1, a near record-low 6.92 million viewers. That game admittedly had stiff competition in the form of Monday Night Football, while the NLCS only had to contend with an NBA doubleheader on TNT and a pair of NHL games on ESPN.
The seven-game series averaged 5.4 million viewers across TBS, truTV, and Max, topping Fox’s presentation of the ALCS this year (5.236 million). It’s the most-watched LCS, regardless of network, since 2019.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s release notes that this was the most-watched MLB Postseason game on TBS since 2015 (9.22 million for Game 3 of the Mets-Cubs NLCS), and the seventh-most-watched MLB game ever on the network.
The two LCS matchups combined averaged 5.2 million viewers, the best round for MLB since 2018. Overall, the league’s Postseason is up 7% from 2022, a sharp 180 from the league’s performance through the Wild Card and Division Series rounds.
The @MLB LCS round averaged its best viewership since 2018 (5.2 million across Fox, FS1, TBS, truTV).
Pair of Game 7s always helps
LCS also flipped the script on MLB Postseason audience declines seen in Wild Card, LDS
2023 postseason now +7% over 2022 headed into World Series
— Austin Karp (@AustinKarp) October 26, 2023
That increase may be short-lived, however. The Diamondbacks-Rangers World Series begins on Friday night, with Game 2 taking place in primetime Saturday and going head-to-head with college football. Monday’s Game 3 will go head-to-head with a Raiders-Lions matchup on Monday Night Football, and potential Games 6 and 7 will also take place on Friday and Saturday night.
About Joe Lucia
I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.