Dodgers-Yankees Generates Huge Ratings For Fox, As America Celebrates Yankees Losing
Yankees lose, America wins
Major League Baseball continues to grow and gain audience share in the United States. And ESPN picked now as the time to exit the baseball business.
This past weekend marked a rematch of the 2024 World Series, as the Los Angeles Dodgers hosted the New York Yankees. And the ratings were, once again, huge. Double-digit increases over broadcasts in 2024, despite a strong set of competing sports television broadcasts.
The series started with a bang on Friday, as Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani hit dueling homers in the first inning.
On Saturday, Judge hit two homers, providing the two lone runs for the Yankees in an 18-2 annihilation by the Dodgers. And even with the blowout win, ratings for Fox Sports were huge. Per the Fox Sports PR account on X, the game drew 2.2 million viewers, which marked a 16 percent increase year-over-year.
When the Yankees lose, America celebrates.
LOS ANGELES - Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers reacts to his lead at third during an 18-2 Los Angeles Dodgers win over the New York Yankees at Dodger Stadium on May 31, 2025. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
MLB Ratings Up Across The Board In 2025
Following up Fox Sports' announcement, the Major League Baseball Communications account on X posted a full list of ratings increases across their major television partners. They're all up. A lot.
TBS is up 16 percent, ESPN 22 percent, Fox 10 percent, MLB Network Showcase games are up 13 percent, broadcasts in Japan are up 22 percent, and the league's subscription streaming service is up a whopping 27 percent.
Sounds like the perfect time to end your relationship with baseball to focus on the rapidly declining NBA, doesn't it ESPN?
This is great news for baseball, and serves as further confirmation that the league's new rules have paid off. Game times have dropped 20 to 30 minutes, on average, and more importantly, feel faster. Interest in the sport has grown as a result, as well as the emergence of big stars on their way to historic accomplishments.
Judge and Ohtani obviously lead that charge, but it's also players like Bobby Witt Jr., Gunnar Henderson, Paul Skenes, Jackson Merrill, James Wood and Pete Crow-Armstrong who have driven strong local interest and created interesting matchups throughout the sport.
Plus, with the Yankees losing the World Series thanks to a series of humiliating defensive collapses, then losing by 16 runs on national television, there's plenty of reasons to celebrate.