World Series tickets are the most expensive ever

new York
CNN
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Tickets for this year's highly anticipated World Series between the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers are expected to be the most expensive ever.

According to reseller TickPick, the average ticket price on the secondary market is around $1,703. This narrowly exceeds the previous record holder from 2016 – and is more than twice the average for last year.

According to TickPick, tickets for the 2023 series, in which the Texas Rangers won their first championship, cost an average of about $776 over five games. The most expensive World Series to date was between the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland in 2016, when the average ticket cost $1,691.

This year's series begins this week with the first of at least five games on Friday in Los Angeles – where the cheapest ticket is $975 on TickPick. The record highs are for game three, the first of the series to be played in New York: $1,476 for a general admission ticket and $1,790 for a physical seat.

The sky-high ticket prices are likely due to several factors. Both teams come from two of the largest cities in the United States. Each features some of baseball's biggest stars, including Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers and Aaron Judge of the Yankees. It will also be the first time in more than four decades that the Yankees and Dodgers will meet in the World Series, since a matchup in 1981.

The Yankees have won the most World Series championships with 27, while the Dodgers won the World Series four years ago and have won a total of seven championships.

For similar reasons, the ratings of the Fox television network, which broadcasts the World Series, are likely to reach record levels: the teams come from the two largest TV markets and the teams' respective playoff runs have achieved enormous viewership.

Fox Sports said Tuesday that ratings for its cable channels FS1 and Fox Deportes — as well as its streaming platforms — were the highest since 2019, with an average of 5.6 million viewers for the six NL Championship Series games.

TBS, which like CNN is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, said ratings for the AL Championship Series between the Yankees and Cleveland Guardians on its network also reached multi-year highs. The games were also broadcast on truTV and streamed on Max.