MLB Playoff TV Ratings: A Four-Game NLCS Still Drew 7.53 Million

Milwaukee needed only four games to eliminate the Los Angeles Dodgers, but the National League Championship Series still averaged 7.533 million viewers on FOX and FS1. The sweep ended the matchup before a fifth game could be played, leaving a strong audience result across the shortest possible series.

FOX called it the most-watched League Championship Series by average audience on any network since 2015. The completed-series figure also provides a fuller picture than the early NLCS–ALCS comparison, which covered different numbers of games in the two leagues.

The distinction is between how many viewers a broadcast averaged and how many broadcasts the series supplied. Milwaukee’s sweep removed the possibility of Games 5 through 7. It did not prevent the four games played from producing a large average. The 7.533 million figure is not a count of different people who watched the entire series.

The headline growth number depends on the comparison. FOX reported a 77% increase over the first four games of its 2025 ALCS coverage, when Toronto faced Seattle. That comparison uses four games in each sample, but it changes the teams and the league.

Sports Media Watch reported that this year’s NLCS audience was up 60% from the 4.72 million average for last year’s Dodgers–Brewers series. That comparison retains the opponents and the four-game length, but the television package changed from TBS and truTV to FOX and FS1. The increase therefore cannot be assigned entirely to greater interest in either team.

The clincher provides another measure of the audience. Milwaukee entered Game 4 ahead 3–0, and its October 15 victory drew 6.364 million viewers across FS1 and Fox Deportes. FS1 alone averaged 6.135 million, compared with 2.964 million for last year’s ALCS Game 4 on the same channel, an increase FOX reported as 107%.

Game 4 was the least-watched game of this NLCS, according to Sports Media Watch. The series average should therefore not be read as the audience every game delivered. The opener had the advantage of following NFL coverage on FOX; the clincher aired on cable. Those different settings are part of the result, alongside the teams and the series situation.

The distribution labels matter when reading the figures. The series average covers FOX and FS1. Game 4’s larger figure combines FS1 and Fox Deportes, while its smaller figure covers FS1 alone. They are different measurements of overlapping coverage, so adding the two Game 4 numbers would count the FS1 audience twice.

Historical comparisons also span changes in measurement. Sports Media Watch noted that Nielsen’s current estimates include expanded out-of-home viewing and Big Data + Panel measurement. The reported ranking remains useful, but it is not a decade of audiences measured under identical conditions.

The next test comes when the Brewers host Tampa Bay in World Series Game 1 on Friday, October 23. The NLCS supplies an observed audience benchmark for Milwaukee’s postseason coverage, rather than a forecast for that matchup. Los Angeles was part of all four broadcasts being measured; the result cannot tell us how many viewers will follow Milwaukee against a different opponent. The World Series will supply that evidence.

Explore the Ratings database for reported audience records and measurement periods.