Men’s College World Series sees strong ratings, though down from last year

The LSU Tigers’ Men’s College World Series sweep over the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers drew solid viewership for ESPN, though finished down from last season’s three-game finale.

The two-game series averaged 2.50 million viewers across the ESPN family of networks, per ESPN PR. That’s down 11% versus last year’s MCWS Final between Tennessee and Texas A&M, which averaged 2.82 million viewers across three games. However, per Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch, the Tigers’ series win was the most-watched sweep since the final shifted to a best-of-three format in 2003.

Game 2 on Sunday averaged 2.78 million viewers across ABC and ESPNU, down 5% from Game 2 of last year’s series (2.92 million viewers). Saturday’s Game 1 averaged 2.18 million viewers on ESPN and ESPNU, down 4% versus Game 1 last season (2.26 million viewers). It should be noted, Game 1 was being played as news broke of the United States’ military strikes against Iran, which turned many viewers towards news coverage on Saturday night.

Despite lasting just two games, this year’s MCWS Final ranks as the fourth most-watched since the best-of-three format was introduced. Three of those four series include LSU, with the Tigers’ 2023 win over Florida ranking as the most-watched on record (2.86 million viewers).

Overall, the NCAA baseball tournament averaged 537,000 viewers across ESPN’s networks. The tournament is part of a rights package that ESPN signed with the NCAA last year which includes all NCAA-sanctioned postseason events other than football and men’s basketball. ESPN is paying $115 million annually for the package, and it continues to pay off.

Just earlier this month, the Women’s College World Series set an all-time viewership record for ESPN. Of course, sports like women’s basketball, volleyball, and gymnastics continue to prove themselves as substantial viewership draws too. Often, these college tournaments are able to take programming slots that would otherwise be filled with studio programming or re-airs, and they don’t typically compete with other major sporting events. While there is still room for optimization with the schedule, it seems that ESPN’s investment in college sports was a prudent one, especially at that price.