Considering the matchup, viewership for Games 1 and 2 of the World Series held up about as well as Fox Sports could have possibly hoped.
Friday’s Rays-Brewers World Series Game 1 averaged 12.26 million viewers across FOX (11.51M), Fox Deportes and Univision, followed by Game 2 on Saturday night at 10.85 million across FOX (10.66M) and Fox Deportes — down 8% and 7% respectively from last year’s equivalent 13.31 and 11.63 million for Dodgers-Blue Jays.
Viewership declined further compared to the bigger-market pairing of the Dodgers and Yankees two years ago, which averaged 15.47 million for Game 1 and 14.10 million for Game 2. But even those declines — 21% and 23% respectively — were not as steep as one might expect given the market size disparity.
The Brewers’ wins comfortably outpaced the previous non-Dodgers World Series, the all-time lows set by Rangers-Diamondbacks in 2023. Game 1 increased 31% from 9.35 million and Game 2 by 29% from 8.38 million. (Note that the 2023 World Series took place before Nielsen shifted to its current “Big Data + Panel” methodology or expanded its out-of-home viewing sample to cover 100% of markets in the lower 48 states.)
This year’s World Series features home markets representing a combined 3.2 million homes, the fewest for any Fall Classic in 20 years, since Cardinals-Tigers combined for 3.17 million across Detroit (1.94M) and St. Louis (1.23M). While Tampa-St. Petersburg is by no definition a small market, placing just outside of the top ten with 2.28 million homes, #39 ranked Milwaukee (956K) is the smallest market in MLB.
By comparison, last year’s World Series featured teams representing nearly twice as many TV homes — and that was just in Los Angeles. (The Blue Jays’ Canadian market does not count toward U.S. TV viewership.) The combined market size of Dodgers-Yankees two years ago was four times higher at 13.3 million, and even the infamously low-rated Rangers-Diamondbacks paired teams whose markets combined for more than two million additional homes (5.30M).
Other leagues have weathered smaller-market series in recent years. The Pacers-Thunder NBA Finals two years ago pit markets representing just 1.99 million homes across Indianapolis (1.23M) and Oklahoma City (763K). The Stanley Cup Final has featured smaller-market matchups in each of the past four years, all of which featured either Las Vegas — which at #40 is a smaller Nielsen market than Milwaukee — or Canadian team Edmonton.
But market size is not everything, and this year’s World Series is just the second in the past 13 years to pit the top two teams in their respective leagues over the course of a 162-game season — joining Yankees-Dodgers. (Dodgers-Rays in 2020 also pit the top two teams, but that was over a 60-game season due to COVID.) By comparison, Rangers-Diamondbacks was a matchup of Wild Card teams seeded 5th and 6th respectively.
As befits a matchup of league-leading clubs, Games 1 and 2 were both reasonably close and competitive — but the Brewers now appear to be running away with the series after a 10-1 Game 3 victory that put them up 3-0.
Figures for Game 3 will be out Wednesday at the earliest, and viewership is likely to take a hit given the blowout margin and tough competition from Cowboys-Eagles on “Monday Night Football.” It should be noted that Game 2 also faced tougher football competition than a year ago, airing opposite a Mississippi-Texas game on ABC that averaged 8.09 million — up from Texas-LSU opposite Game 2 last year (6.76M).
Locally, Game 1 averaged a 33.9 rating and 70 share in Milwaukee, with Game 2 higher at a 35.4 and 71. Tampa-St. Petersburg chipped in a 12.1 and 41 for Game 1 and an 11.8 and 43 for Game 2. When the Rays last made the World Series in 2020, Game 1 averaged a 14.5 and Game 2 a 16.4.
