Corey Seager and Marcus Semien of the Texas Rangers celebrating during the 2023 World Series. Photo via USA Today Sports
The 2023 World Series is the least-watched World Series in recorded history, according to new reports.
Game 1 between the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks, which saw the Rangers mount a historic and thrilling 6-5 comeback in extra innings, was the lowest-rated World Series game. It recorded an average of 9.35 million viewers across the multiple FOX networks. This broke the previous low of 9.48 for Game 1 of the pandemic 2020 World Series.
The game was the lowest-rated World Series Game 1 since records began in 1969. It was second-lowest rated World Series of all time, only behind Game 3 of the aforementioned 2020 World Series which saw only 8.3 million viewers. Game 1 was only the sixth World Series game all-time (since records began) to not reach the 10 million mark. Compared to last year’s Game 1, which saw 11.5 million viewers, this year’s game was down nearly 20%.
It Gets Worse
However, even more bad news was revealed. According to the Nielsen Ratings, Game 2 of the World Series shattered the previous low of 2020, with only 8.15 million viewers. This made it officially the lowest-rated World Series game of all time. Then, two nights later, Game 3 broke that with a low of 8.13 million viewers.
With all three games not even hitting the 10 million mark, this puts the 2023 Fall Classic on pace to be the lowest rated ever. This does not mean that baseball is dying, however. This year’s League Championship Series was the most-watched of its kind since 2018, and up 15% from last year. Overall postseason ratings are up 7% compared to 2022.
“When it comes to World Series, [the ratings] are so dependent on the teams in it…it is so dependent on bigger matchups,” sports YouTuber Patrick MCL, who goes by Depressed Ginger, stated in a recent video about the situation. “The Yankees versus the Giants, the Cardinals versus the Red Sox, something like that. And when you don’t have it, [it hurts ratings].”
Coming to an End
It should be noted that despite the low numbers, the Fall Classic was the most viewed program on television the night of Friday, October 27. The next closest program was an episode of The Price is Right which averaged 3.01 million viewers. However, the same cannot be said of the other two games.
Now, with Texas taking a commanding 3-1 series lead over Arizona, the Series could be all but over tonight. If it ends in less games, that will hurt the Series’ overall ratings even further, as it will not benefit from ratings from extra games. We’ll just have to wait and see.
