The Los Angels Dodgers and New York Yankees are simply focused on winning a championship in the 2024 World Series, as was made clear after their hard-fought Game 1 battle on Friday. But these two iconic franchises are also faced with the underlying and perhaps unwanted expectation that they can generate record-breaking interest for baseball.

The early results show that history is already being made in this Fall Classic. LA’s supremely captivating 6-3 walk-off win in extra innings versus New York averaged 15.2 million viewers, the most in a World Series Game 1 since 2017 (Dodgers were in that one, too), per Variety’s Cynthia Littleton. Those numbers could get even bigger, based on how Friday night’s showdown ended.

Following a drama-filled affair that featured impressive defensive plays, big-time at-bats and errors and questionable decisions from both clubs, Game 1 came down to a face-off between Freddie Freeman and Nestor Cortes. The Dodgers first baseman prevailed against the Yankees southpaw, who had not pitched in over a month, belting a grand slam with his team trailing 3-2 with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning.

Obviously, fans did not exactly know what to expect in the last chapter of this opening collision, but their guts told them something special would transpire in Dodger Stadium. The ratings reached a high of 17.8 million about 10 minutes before Freeman’s walk-off bomb, as people, including Kirk Gibson himself, tuned in to witness the final frame of Game 1. Theoretically, those who flipped the TV on Dodgers-Yankees on Friday will eagerly do the same for the remainder of the 2024 World Series.

Dodgers and Yankees bring plenty of narratives to World Series