But as the St. Louis public turns away from the Cardinals, they remain interested in the World Series — which, unlike their local broadcasts, is widely available on free, over-the-air television via Fox (KTVI, Channel 2 locally.)

Nielsen, which calculates the audience, reports that an average of 8.2% of the market followed the recent victory of the Los Angeles Dodgers against the New York Yankees in five games. That’s tied for 10th nationally, with Phoenix and West Palm Beach, Florida. This marks at least the 15th consecutive season that Gateway City has been in the top 15 (numbers have been available since 2010), and the 12th time during that span. been in the top 10.

Los Angeles led the way this year (18.9 rating), followed by San Diego (12.4) and New York (12.2).

Nationally, the series averaged 15.81 million viewers – the most since Houston beat the Dodgers in a seven-game series in 2017 – and was up significantly from the record Last year’s audience of 9.08 million for Texas’ ouster of Arizona in five games.

In Japan, home of Dodgers Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto – each of whom was making their first World Series appearance – broadcasts of this year’s series averaged 12.9 million viewers. This is despite the competitions starting just after 9 a.m. local time.

Meanwhile, St. Louis’ strength in the MLB All-Star Game rankings even surpasses its performance in the World Series.

Although only one Cardinal was selected for this year’s Summer Classic and that player (pitcher Ryan Helsley) withdrew the day before the game to rest his arm, Gateway City finished sixth nationally for the competition.

That extended St. Louis’ streak in the national top 10 for each of 22 All-Star contests in the records dating back to 2002. Market has been first 10 times, second in five others and third twice. This represents 77% of competitions that place in the top three.