The College World Series final finished with a solid viewership number.
Vanderbilt-Michigan scored a 1.3 rating and 2.00 million viewers in Wednesday’s Game 3 of the College World Series final, up 18% in ratings and 6% in viewership from Oregon State-Arkansas last year, which aired on ESPN2 (1.1, 1.89M). Compared to Game 3 of Coastal Carolina-Arizona in 2016, which aired during the afternoon on ESPNU, viewership jumped 298% from 503,000.
Compared to the last Game 3 to air as scheduled on ESPN — Virginia-Vanderbilt in 2015 — ratings increased 18% (from 1.1) and viewership 20% (from 1.67M).
The Commodores’ win ranks as the highest rated and most-watched Game 3 of the CWS final since 2014 (Vanderbilt-Virginia: 1.6, 2.39M). It also delivered the third-largest CWS audience overall since 2014, trailing Game 2 last year (2.16M) and Game 2 of Florida-LSU in 2017 (2.01M).
Game 3 outdrew every Major League Baseball game on ESPN this season, with the current high being 1.97 million for Red Sox-Yankees earlier this month. The College World Series final accounts for three of the top four baseball audiences on ESPN this year.
The complete three-game series averaged 1.94 million viewers, down 1% from last year (1.96M), but up 3% from the two-game sweep in 2017 (1.89M). It ranks as the second-most watched final since 2014 (2.01M).
Top baseball/softball audiences on ESPN this year
[Numbers from Nielsen via Programming Insider 6.27]
