After very underwhelming viewership through four games, the World Series finished stronger — but it wasn’t enough to prevent the 2023 edition from being the least-watched ever.
The Texas Rangers 5-0 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 5 on Wednesday night averaged 11.45 million viewers on Fox — the most-watched game of the Series, but still a 10% decrease in viewership from 2022’s Game 5 and only ranking above 2020 as the least-watched Game 5 of all time, per SportsMediaWatch.
With that number accounted for, the 2023 World Series averaged 9.11 million viewers, surpassing 2020 (9.95M) as the least-watched World Series on record.
That series-long viewership was a 23% decline from Astros-Phillies in 2022 — but all the same, the four least-watched World Series of all time have been the last four.
Game 2 on Saturday broke the record (8.15M) for the least-watched World Series game ever — only for Game 3 to set the new record (8.13M) two nights later.
Still, for all of the doom and gloom, the 2023 World Series was a major pro sports championship and was television’s most-watched show each night it was on, except Game 3, which competed with “Monday Night Football.”
Despite tangible viewership benefits this regular season from high-profile rule changes, MLB could not figure out how to translate that success to the Postseason: The playoffs as a whole averaged 4.45 million viewers across Fox Sports, TBS, and ESPN — an 8% decrease from last year (4.86M).
