After the bottom fell out in Game 3, World Series viewership rebounded in the final games.
Tuesday’s Brewers-Rays World Series Game 4 averaged 13.48 million viewers across FOX (13.31M) and Fox Deportes, down 9% from Blue Jays-Dodgers last year (14.81M), but officially the third-largest Game 4 audience since 2018 — trailing only last year and Dodgers-Yankees two years ago (16.7M). Viewership increased 56% from Game 4 of the previous non-Dodgers World Series, Rangers-Diamondbacks in 2023 (8.65M).
The Rays’ title-delaying win was the most-watched non-Dodgers World Series game overall since 2021, surpassing all five games of the record-low Rangers-Diamondbacks series and all six of Phillies-Astros in 2022.
Note that out-of-home viewing was not included in Nielsen estimates until 2020 or fully accounted for until 2025, that this is only in the second year of a new Nielsen methodology integrating “Big Data” from smart TVs, set-top boxes and first party data with its traditional panel, and that Nielsen has recently tweaked its measurement to better account for co-viewing of games.
Viewership rebounded sharply from the previous night’s Game 3, which averaged 8.33 million across FOX and Fox Deportes — the second-smallest World Series audience on record — ahead of only Game 2 of the 2023 series. The historically lopsided rout aired on a competitive night that included Cowboys-Eagles on NFL “Monday Night Football” (18.8M).
FOX is projecting that Wednesday’s clinching Game 5 will finish with 14.22 million across FOX (14.03M) and Fox Deportes, a figure that would rank as the third-highest for a Game 5 since 2018 — behind only Blue Jays-Dodgers last year (14.57M) and Dodgers-Yankees two years ago (18.60M).
The Game 5 audience would rank as the highest for any non-Dodgers World Series game since Nationals-Astros Game 7 in 2019 (23.22M).
Based on the projected audience for Game 5, FOX said Thursday that the World Series is projected to finish with an average of 12 million viewers across FOX, Fox Deportes, and a Univision simulcast of Game 1 — trailing only the past two years as the most-watched Fall Classic since 2019.
Local figures for Games 4 and 5 were not immediately available, but Game 3 averaged a 39.6 rating and 71 share in Milwaukee. Tampa-St. Petersburg chipped in a 10.7 and 33 for the Rays’ blowout loss.
