The Los Angeles Dodgers and their fans are celebrating, and so is MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred. History may eventually reflect that LA ousted the New York Yankees in fairly straightforward fashion, building a 3-0 World Series lead and winning a championship in five games. But those who emotionally invested in this battle of blue-chip franchises know that the 2024 Fall Classic was a highly enjoyable pursuit of immortality. And the ratings prove that.

The Dodgers and Yankees lived up their reputation and proved to be the box-office draw that the sport was yearning for following a dismal viewership turnout in last year's showdown between the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks. Manfred and MLB will be thrilled to see pronounced growth in 2024. The LA versus New York World Series averaged 15.8 million viewers, which is the most in seven years, according to USA Today's Bob Nightengale.

Dodgers and Yankees close the book on a memorable World Series

Although the Dodgers-Yankees clash did not meet the sky-high ratings expectations that pundits set for it, these two bastions of baseball tradition produced a dramatic and gripping competition on the grand stage. World Series MVP Freddie Freeman further cemented himself into big-game lore, teleporting an entire fan base 36 years into the past thanks to an unforgettable walk-off Grand Slam in Game 1. Anthony Volpe enjoyed his own October grand salami, temporarily saving the Yankees' season and possibly announcing himself as a future star in Game 4.

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Even the ugly moments were must-watch. New York rung in Halloween a night early, giving Yankee Stadium one heart-stopping scare after another in an error-stuffed 7-6 loss in Game 5. Despite blasting a tone-setting two-run home run in the first inning, Aaron Judge's dropped fly ball in the fifth contributed to the unfortunate narrative that he cannot get the job done in the postseason. That ongoing storyline commanded significant national attention, as people surely tuned in to see if the generational slugger could finally ignite.

Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto cannot be brushed off to the side, though. They were each brought in to help their respective franchises win a championship and will soon be the top two highest-paid stars in baseball history. There are others who deserve their due, too, including Walker Buehler. The righty's heroic save on one day of rest fittingly concluded the Dodgers' adversity-ridden season, which saw their pitching staff become eroded by injuries.

This gathering of supreme talent, mixture of suspense and clutch plays and the existing history between both clubs will be difficult to replicate. The 2024 World Series ratings might be an outlier, but hopefully the Dodgers and Yankees put on enough of a compelling show that will reel in an abundance of new MLB fans.