World Series Game 7 ratings big despite low

Game 7 of the World Series was a ratings hit despite hitting a record-low.

Wednesday’s Nationals-Astros World Series Game 7 averaged a 13.1 rating and 23.01 million viewers on FOX, marking the lowest rated and least-watched Game 7 of the Fall Classic on record. The previous marks were a 13.7 and 23.52 million for Giants-Royals in 2014.

The Nationals’ title-clinching win, which peaked with 27.06 million viewers from 11-11:15 PM ET, fell 17% in ratings and 19% in viewership from Astros-Dodgers in 2017 (15.8, 28.24M) and 40% and 43% respectively from Cubs-Indians in 2016 (21.8, 40.05M), the two previous game sevens.

Despite the low, Game 7 ranks as the seventh-most watched Major League Baseball game in the past 15 years, and is tied as the eighth-highest rated.

It also ranks as the top non-football sporting event of the year, topping the previous marks of 11.6 and 19.63 million for the Virginia-Texas Tech men’s college basketball national championship. The World Series has delivered the top non-football audience in three of four years, each for a Game 7.

Including football games, Game 7 ranks 17th for the year behind ten NFL playoff games, five NFL regular season games, and the Alabama-Clemson College Football Playoff National Championship (13.8, 25.38M).

Locally, Game 7 averaged a 42.7 rating and 63 share in Houston — down 9% from Astros-Dodgers in ’17 (47.1).

In victorious Washington D.C., it averaged a 31.8/53 — the market’s highest for any MLB telecast since at least 1998. The local rating, which peaked at a 39.2/74 from 11:45 PM ET through Midnight, exceeded the Capitals’ Stanley Cup Final clincher last year (25.2).

Game 7 averaged a 6.1 rating in adults 18-49, down 25% from 2017 (8.2) and down 52% from 2016 (12.6). The 6.1 is the lowest for a Game 7, falling below the previous mark set in 2014 (6.6), but the highest for any non-NFL television program since Game 6 of the NBA Finals in June (6.6).

Its 4.5 rating in adults 18-34 sank 31% from 2017 (6.5) and 57% from 2016 (10.5).

Ratings/viewership for Game 7 of the World Series, past 30 years

Highest rated/most-watched MLB games, past 15 years

Highest rated				Most-watched
#	Year	Game	Rtg	#	Year	Game	Vwrs
1	2016	CHC-CLE Gm. 7	21.8	1	2016	CHC-CLE Gm. 7	40.05M
2	2017	HOU-LAD Gm. 7	15.8	2	2017	HOU-LAD Gm. 7	28.24M
3	2011	TEX-STL Gm. 7	14.7	3	2011	TEX-STL Gm. 7	25.40M
4	2014	SF-KC Gm. 7	13.7	4	2016	CLE-CHC Gm. 5	23.64M
5	2009	NYY-PHI Gm. 4	13.5	5	2014	SF-KC Gm. 7	23.52M
6	2009	PHI-NYY Gm. 6	13.4	6	2016	CHC-CLE Gm. 6	23.40M
7	2016	CHC-CLE Gm. 6	13.3	7	2019	WSH-HOU Gm. 7	23.01M
8	2019	WSH-HOU Gm. 7	13.1	8	2009	NYY-PHI Gm. 4	22.76M
8	2016	CLE-CHC Gm. 5	13.1	9	2009	PHI-NYY Gm. 6	22.34M
10	2005	CHW-HOU Gm. 4	13.0	10	2017	HOU-LAD Gm. 6	22.23M

[Nielsen estimates from Fox Sports, ShowBuzz Daily 10.31]

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Jon Lewis

Jon Lewis has been covering the sports media industry on a daily basis since 2006 as the founder and main writer of Sports Media Watch. You can contact him here or on the social media websites X (Twitter) or Bluesky.

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Comments 15

Samuel says:

7 years ago

I guess the fact that Game 7 was the most-watched non-football sporting event will calm down the “baseball is dying” narrative. This number proves there’s still a strong audience for baseball, even in 2019. The concern has to be when the series is shorter than 7 games like last year for example. It was a ratings flop even though you had two of the four most popular teams playing each other (Red Sox/Dodgers). What happens if down the road you get a 5/6 game series between say the White Sox and Padres? Would a series like that even average 10 million viewers per game? So although it’s nice that Game 7 cracked the 23 million viewership mark, it has to be put into perspective. Game 7 will always be a draw but FOX and MLB got lucky thanks to a quirky series that featured road teams winning every game that obviously pushed it the distance. I’ll be interested to see what the ratings look like starting with the new decade coming up. As others on here have said, MLB better start implementing ways for the game to last much shorter in time or ratings and interest will continue to plummet.
Jeff Rodrigues says:

7 years ago

4 hour World Series games in 9 innings certainly are not helping. Take into account the 3 minute commercial breaks every half inning. Many years ago before the strike, I know they didn’t have 3 minute commercial breaks every half inning. Certainly the slower pace from pitch to pitch is a factor in this. If bullpen pitching changes are happening more often in the modern game compared to before the strike, then you have the additional 2 minute commercial breaks in the action for that as well. All of that additional time adds up. But for me, I barely watched any part of this year’s World Series, not because of the team matchup, but because after having watched other recent World Series, it’s gotten to the point where I feel like I’m watching a long infomercial with a game in-between. Quite honestly, the modern World Series broadcasts have become so over-saturated with advertising and sponsor plugs (almost equally as bad as NASCAR nowadays) that it has hurt my interest in watching the World Series. It distracts my attention from the game itself and my enjoyment of it, and that’s why I barely viewed any of it this year. And if FOX is going to continue to dilute their broadcasts with so much overadvertising, I’m not going to reward them by staying tuned to them.
Esl says:

7 years ago

Pace of play is the biggest issue in MLB and will continue to be a problem that will generate low ratings. Consider that in this best of 7 series there were 2 games that were over 4 hours long, and 4 others wee over 3 1/2 hours. And none of the games were extra innings., MLB needs to address this. But I don’t think they will.
insideguy says:

7 years ago

After all is said and done and people bashing baseball ratings bla bla, this game 7 still drew more than any other sporting event of the year that wasn’t football. People can worry and all this other nonsense but at the end of the day what sporting event on tv has done better? The NFL and that is it.
- Nate Johnson says:
  
  7 years ago
  
  Facts! But I will say that the fact it is the lowest Game 7 of all-time in the MLB and the fact that the World Series is on a downward trend is looking to go down does brings up questions and speculations on how to get better going forward so these results can be MLB’s floor. I’ll say this, had the Toronto Blue Jays participated in the World Series, the NBA Finals would’ve blew out the World Series. Not saying the NBA is better than the MLB in popularity or its brand/product, but the advancement they would have in comparison to the MLB would be greater at this given moment. Still year to year, but there are explanation in ratings.
  - isnsideguy says:
    
    7 years ago
    
    You might be right I know the NBA had a down year. But as Paulson posted the 7th game of the WS has been the highest rated non football sporting event in 3 of the last 4 years. Whatever the ratings are. And the NBA doesn’t have a primetime audience of network first run shows to deal with nor does it have NFL games to deal with on Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays.
Vin Ranucci says:

7 years ago

I love baseball. It’s the only sport I seriously follow, but too many things have affected the game for viewers at the field and on tv. The strike in 1994 was a disaster for the game. Toronto was selling out every game (over 50,000 a game) but over half the fans there said they would have nothing to do with game again. Many other cities had similar reactions. That All Star game projected to end in tie was a terrible decision. I used to wait for that game as an AL fan to beat the NL. The leagues aren ‘t so different anymore but I try to enjoy the game anyway. So many great players that I followed like Pete Rose aren’t part of the game for their actions. The use of illegal drugs put a damper on interest in so many players. Mark Maguire and Sammy Sosa made baseball fun for much of the nation but their use of drugs had to make us wonder why we get so excited over these players. Baseball needs players with charisma. In Boston we had a lot of charisma in a team having the likes of Manny Ramírez. The whole New England area was all about the Red Sox and “Manny being Manny”. There aren’t many Reggie Jacksons around. More needs to be done for baseball to be more entertaining on tv. It can’t rely on players running around a lot. So many great plays are made at third base but the camera barely picks it up and often there is no replay if it’s a third out. Basketball and football would show such a play at least 5 times from various angles. They have to speed up the pace of the game for tv but it’ll take more than that for the game be at pre-1994 popularity. I still love the game though. It’s very challenging not so dependent on size.
Garry says:

7 years ago

Sorry I meant caps game 5 was higher than nats game 5
Garry says:

7 years ago

I don’t agree comparing the caps to the nats for this game. It was a game 7 clinching game and the caps game which was 2 years ago was a game 5. Please note that the caps game 5 had a higher rating than the caps game 5.
Nate Johnson says:

7 years ago

Such a weird series. Astros came in as the biggest favorites in World Series history (Didn’t understand that whatsoever), from Games 2-7 there was no true drama in the 9th inning, you had a controversial game in Game 6 that led to Dave Martinez going ballistic, Something interesting happened in the stands during Game 5 in DC, The Umps probably gave reasoning for the MLB to seriously consider adding robot Ump to the game, and of course ALL Home teams lost each game (talk about Home-field Disadvantage). With a weird series I guess comes a weird sequence of events in terms of its Ratings.

If I’m the MLB I’m not concerned about these results. Had the Cubs or Yankees participated in the World Series there would be no issue. If Bryce Harper was still a Nat, the numbers would be greater since he’s one of the rare household name Nationally. The question that has to be asked is how can All-Star/Elite talent in the Majors can be marketed very highly from all over? There’s ideas I have, but playing 162 games from March-September with Spring Training and October ball taking up space makes it very tough so there would have to be some wiggle room or plans.
ricklion says:

7 years ago

I think I remember that more than 10 years ago Paulsen published an article explaining more or less the popularity of baseball at the time.

It would be very interesting and considering how many things have changed since then until today, as a great fan of baseball I am, I would like you to write again about the health of baseball. In this era of social networks, where there are so many false narratives, the change that television has undergone, etc… It is always good to read someone who knows about this industry and objectively analyzes it.
- Paulsen says:
  
  7 years ago
  
  I could do something like that — maybe at the end of the year if I decide to recap the decade.
Rich S. says:

7 years ago

The worry for MLB is that they’ve had the biggest fortune possible over the last 4 years in the world series — three game 7s and a Dodgers-Red Sox matchup — all of which should have been an absolute Godsend and spelled massive ratings. However only one of those four series moved the needle in anyway, and the other three were ratings flops with the exceptions of the final game or two of the series. I hate to think what the ratings might be next year if it’s not a marquee match-up and lasts less than 7 games.
Jeff says:

7 years ago

Considering the way this Series started, Fox and MLB will take these numbers and say thanks. Now, moving on to bigger issues facing MLB: the pace of play problem was unavoidable in this postseason once again. Will it get addressed in a serious way? Also, this was a nice spotlight for some incredible young players (I’m looking at you, Juan Soto, age 20). But will anyone other than baseball diehards come to know these guys? If history is any judge, the answer is no.
- David says:
  
  7 years ago
  
  I agree. They somewhat dodged a bullet with these final numbers, so take advantage and address some issues before things get worse. 4 hour 9 inning games are unacceptable, even in the post season. A 9 inning game should rarely be over 3 hours, certainly not 4. More balls in play would be good too. Not exactly sure how to address that, maybe lower the mound? I love baseball and want to see it thrive, but without addressing some things, it will probably continue to decline, even if it is slowly.