The Los Angeles Dodgers are often painted as baseball’s villain, but in reality they have been part of MLB’s most-viewed games since the start of the 2024 season.
That began with the Seoul Series and continued through defeating the New York Yankees in the World Series. Then last year, the Dodgers and Chicago Cubs were a significant TV draw with the Tokyo Series. The 2025 World Series also contributed to some of the most-watched games in postseason history.
Now with their road trip including matchups against the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies, the Dodgers again were part of TV networks registering ratings highs even if they came in losses.
MLB ratings boosted by Dodgers
Sunday Night Baseball on NBC
After taking the series opener at Yankee Stadium, the Dodgers and Yankees were forced to play a split doubleheader because of a rainout on this past Saturday.
The Dodgers won the first game on July 19 in comfortable fashion, then looked to complete a sweep of the Yankees. The series finale had already been selected for a national “Sunday Night Baseball” broadcast on NBC and Peacock.
It wound up becoming the second-most watched “Sunday Night Baseball” telecast since 2011, averaging 3.9 million viewers on NBC and Peacock. The broadcast also featured the largest peak audience of the season for a “Sunday Night Baseball” game as 4.6 million viewers watched from 6:45 p.m. through 7 p.m. PT.
Unfortunately for the Dodgers, that coincided with Jazz Chisholm Jr. hitting a game-winning home run off Evan Phillips in the eighth inning.
Jason Benetti was on the call for NBC Sports, and he was accompanied by Orel Hershiser and Roger Clemens in the booth, and CC Sabathia provided commentary from next to the Yankees’ dugout.
NBC is in their first season of a media rights deal with MLB, but has a long history with the sport. The firs MLB television broadcast was a doubleheader between the Cincinnati Reds and Brooklyn Dodgers doubleheader in 1939 on W2XBS (the precursor to WNBC-TV).
NBC Sports was also home to the first World Series broadcast in 1947 and first All-Star Game nationally broadcast in 1952.
ESPN
On Monday night, the Dodgers and Phillies started their series at Citizens Bank Park with an exclusive national broadcast on ESPN. The Phillies’ 10-7 win amounted to ESPN’s most-watched MLB game this season with an average of 1.8 million viewers.
That represented a 42% increase from comparable ESPN weeknight MLB games last year.
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