The World Series posted a fourth-straight decline in Game 4.
Saturday’s Red Sox-Dodgers World Series Game 4 earned a 7.9 rating and 13.56 million viewers on FOX, down 9% in ratings and 12% in viewership from Dodgers-Astros last year (15.40M) and down 15% and 19% respectively from Indians-Cubs in 2016 (16.71M).
Boston’s comeback win, which peaked with 16.77 million viewers, was the lowest rated Game 4 of the World Series since Royals-Mets in 2015 (7.8) and the least-watched since Royals-Giants in 2014 (10.74M). It topped only Royals-Giants as the least-watched Game 4 on record.
Keep in mind that Game 4 did not begin airing on a Saturday night — the least-watched night of the week — until 2014.
Among Saturday night World Series games, Game 4 ranks as the fourth-most watched since 2009 (Yankees-Phillies Game 3: 15.40M). The Saturday night game has now topped 13 million viewers in four straight years, after failing to crack 12 million in the previous four.
Including streaming and Spanish-language viewership, Game 4 had 14.15 million across all Fox Sports platforms — down 11% from last year (15.91M) and down 17% from 2016 (17.01M).
Entering Sunday’s clincher, all four games of the World Series had declined to multi-year lows. Games 2-4 each posted double-digit declines.
None of the first four games managed as large an audience as any game of Astros-Dodgers last year or Cubs-Indians in 2016. Red Sox-Dodgers is the first World Series since 2014 in which none of the first four games cracked 14 million viewers.
Game 4 had a 3.3 rating in adults 18-49, down 15% from last year (3.9) and down 21% from 2016 (4.2). The 3.3 is the lowest Game 4 rating in the demo since 2014 (2.6).
It also had a 2.2 in adults 18-34 (-19%) and a 4.1 in adults 25-54 (-9%).
For a list of World Series ratings and viewership dating back to 1972, check this page.
World Series Game 4 Ratings, Viewership, Past Decade
[Numbers from Fox Sports PR 10.28, Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 10.30]
