The World Series got off to a solid start and seems poised for a healthy finish, but in between suffered a historic viewership hit for a lopsided Game 3.
Monday’s Brewers-Rays World Series Game 3 averaged 8.3 million viewers across FOX and Fox Deportes, according to sources, marking possibly the smallest audience on record for a World Series game. (Viewership had not been officially announced as of Wednesday night.) The current record low is 8.29 million across FOX and Fox Deportes for Rangers-Diamondbacks Game 3 in 2023.
At best, Game 3 will rank as the second-least watched World Series game on record, a spot currently held by Game 2 of that Rangers-Diamondbacks series (8.39M).
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. Under current methodology, those games would almost certainly rank higher.
The Brewers’ blowout win is one of just five total World Series games to average fewer than nine million viewers, joining Games 2, 3 and 4 of Rangers-Diamondbacks and Game 3 of the COVID-era Dodgers-Rays Fall Classic, which averaged a combined 8.44 million across FOX and Fox Deportes.
The Game 3 audience marked a sharp dropoff from the first two games of the series. Game 1 averaged 12.26 million across FOX, Fox Deportes and Univision, and Game 2 had 10.85 million on FOX and Fox Deportes. Viewership for those two games was down just a modest 8 and 7 percent respectively from last year’s comparable Dodgers-Blue Jays games, but Game 3 fell a sharper 27% from the Nielsen-rated portion of last year’s 18-inning epic.
This year’s Game 3 was the polar opposite of a year ago, as the Brewers opened up a 10-0 lead after an eight-run fifth inning. Not helping matters was competition from one of the NFL’s highest-profile rivalries in Cowboys-Eagles, a more attractive matchup than last year’s Commanders-Chiefs game. (Last year’s game looked formidable on paper until the Commanders’ season began.) Figures for “MNF” had not been announced Wednesday night.
Game 3 was also the first World Series game to ever air opposite the WNBA Finals, and while viewership for that event is far lower than that of the Fall Classic, any additional competition is likely to impact viewership — even if just at the margins.
The Game 3 audience looks to be an outlier in an otherwise healthier-than-expected World Series. The Rays rebounded in Game 4, and the viewership appears to have as well, as early numbers indicate an audience of 13.5 million. That would be a series-high and in keeping with the trend of modest declines established in Games 1 and 2.
