MCWS Final down, but among most-watched in best-of-three era

With the series ending in a sweep, the Men’s College World Series Final was no match for last year’s three-game set.

The two-game LSU-Coastal Carolina Men’s College World Series Final averaged 2.50 million viewers on the ESPN networks, down 11% from last year’s three-game Tennessee-Texas A&M series (2.82M) but the most-watched sweep since the final shifted to a best-of-three format in 2003 (ten total series).

Sunday’s Game 2 averaged 2.78 million viewers across ABC and ESPNU, down five percent from Tennessee-Texas A&M Game 2 last year (2.92M) but still the sixth-largest audience for an MCWS game on the ESPN networks.

Facing breaking news coverage, Saturday’s Game 1 averaged 2.18 million on ESPN and ESPNU — down 4% from last year’s opener (2.26M).

This year’s MCWS Final ranks as the fourth-most watched in the best-of-three era. LSU has played in three of the top four, with the Tigers’ 2023 win over Florida (2.86M) and 2009 win over Texas (2.76M) ranking first and third respectively. (Last year’s series, which ranks second, is the lone exception.)

The complete Men’s College World Series averaged 1.21 million viewers, down 22% from last year (1.56M) but still the third-largest audience for the event since 2011 — behind only last year and 2023 (1.65M). The MCWS averaged fewer viewers than the Women’s College World Series earlier this month (1.3M), though the two-game MCWS Final outdrew the three-game WCWS Final (2.2M).

The full NCAA baseball tournament averaged 537,000 viewers.