The Los Angeles Dodgers facing off against the New York Yankees was the most highly-anticipated series of the season, and possibly the most notable in quite some time as well.
The Dodgers and Yankees are two of MLB’s premiere franchises with tons of history, both in general and against each other, but matchups were largely infrequent. With the addition of the MLB balanced schedule that began in 2023, the two clubs will be meeting every year.
However, last season, the Yankees were a shell of themselves, finishing the season at 82-80 and not drawing much attention from anyone. But this year, both the Dodgers and Yankees are highly-talented with records that back that up.
Each team also made moves to add a superstar in the offseason, with the Yankees trading for Juan Soto while the Dodgers signed Shohei Ohtani, among many other great players.
With both teams playing well and their offseason additions in the fold, the Dodgers facing the Yankees was once again a matchup everyone wanted to watch, and all three games were broadcasted on national television.
The series began on Apple TV+ before moving to FOX for the Saturday game and concluding with ESPN for Sunday Night Baseball. The two weekend games drew record viewership for their respective networks.
Fox had an average of 2.9 million viewers on Saturday night, which was the most-watched regular season telecast on any network since 2022. It also tied Fox’s most-watched regular season Saturday baseball telecast in six years.
ESPN has an average of 2.3 million viewers, with a peak of 2.6 million, giving them their largest Sunday Night Baseball audience in two year.
That is 18% higher than last year’s most comparable game, when the Yankees faced the Boston Red Sox.
As for Apple TV, their numbers were brought down by both games also being shown on local networks, with SportsNet L.A. and YES Network airing the Friday night game.
The games certainly lived up to the hype with the Dodgers taking two of them to win the series. Each matchup had an intense feel and felt like a playoff game.
The expectation and hope among many fans is both teams end up in the World Series, but as we know, the playoffs often have other plans.
Dave Roberts praises Dodgers fans
More than 5,000 fans from Pantone 294 were at Saturday’s blowout win for L.A., and by the end it seemed as though Dodgers fans outweighed Yankees fans in the Bronx.
Manager Dave Roberts praised the fan base for the way that they showed up in droves and talked about how much of a feat it is to do what they did at Yankee Stadium.
