The Game 5 rubber match between the Detroit Tigers and Seattle Mariners on Friday drew the largest Division Series audience in more than a decade despite ending in the early morning hours on the East Coast.
The Mariners’ thrilling win, which ended with a walk-off in the 15th inning, averaged 8.72 million viewers across Fox, Fox Deportes, and Fox-associated streaming services, the network announced on Tuesday. The Fox-only number came out to 8.59 million viewers, which is good for the most-watched Division Series game since Game 5 of the Tigers-Yankees series in 2011 (9.72 million viewers).
Compared to last year’s Dodgers-Padres Game 5 in the comparable Friday night window on Fox, the Mariners’ win increased by 17%, per Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch. Friday’s game is now the most-watched this postseason, outdrawing Game 3 of the Yankees-Red Sox Wild Card Series by over one million viewers.
It’s important to note that this season’s MLB playoffs are the first to be measured under Nielsen’s updated methodologies, which have expanded out-of-home viewing measurements and incorporated “Big Data” into its top-line figures. Both changes have generally served to increase viewership for live sports when compared to historical figures.
As for the rest of the Division Series, Fox scored its best audience figure since 2014 when the company began airing games on FS1. The network averaged 4.15 million viewers across Fox, FS1, and FS2 during the ALDS, up 37% versus last year’s ALDS on TBS. TBS averaged 4.0 million viewers for the NLDS, down slightly from 4.1 million viewers last season on Fox Sports.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.