Padres fans just proved they hate-watched Dodgers World Series like no other

The Los Angeles Dodgers may have won the 2025 World Series, but they weren't the only ones to secure a major victory.

After years of dwindling viewership in the Fall Classic, the Dodgers have injected baseball's biggest stage with its biggest audience in some time, and this year's clash with the Toronto Blue Jays even upped the ante over last year's five-game set against the New York Yankees.

Game 7, in particular, drew a huge crowd, totaling an average of 51 million viewers between the United States, Canada, and Japan. None of that is too surprising — Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Roki Sasaki are the biggest international draws in the sport — but what is a shock is the breakdown in viewership by U.S. cities.

Los Angeles naturally brought in the biggest numbers, but the city with the second-largest audience (relative to total population) was ... San Diego?

Basically, what those numbers mean is that 40% of San Diego residents who were watching television when the World Series was on (and more than 10% of all San Diegans) were tuned into the Dodgers-Blue Jays matchup. For a city with a population of 1.4 million, that means more than 140,000 people were watching their team's chief rival win the World Series for the second straight year.

If you can't beat them, boo them.

Padres' fans hate-watch falls short as Dodgers' dynasty continues

The Padres, who have been the biggest threat to the Dodgers' NL West supremacy over the past decade (save for the 2021 San Francisco Giants), haven't made it to the World Series since 1998. They've also lost to the Dodgers in the NLDS twice since 2020.

It's understandable why their fans would be rooting for Los Angeles' downfall, especially when you consider that practically all of MLB treats the Dodgers like a wrestling heel. The team has been wildly successful since 2013, with three World Series titles and five Fall Classic appearances on their résumé.

Unfortunately for the Padres and their fans, the Dodgers aren't going anywhere anytime soon. The entire core of the team remains under contract for the long term, and with the salaries of Kirby Yates, Clayton Kershaw, Michael Conforto, and others coming off the books this offseason, they actually have a path toward adding talent to the roster.

Of course, there's no room for complacency, as the Blue Jays were just two outs away from stunning Dave Roberts and company in Game 7. The front office needs to keep the pedal to the metal in order to keep this dynastic run going.

If they do, Padres fans will probably be hate-watching the World Series for the rest of the decade.