Audience measurement
Audience measurement measures how many people are in an audience, usually in relation to radio listenership and television viewership, but also in relation to newspaper and magazine readership and, increasingly, web traffic on websites. Somet ...
by
Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...
, commonly referred to as
Nielsen ratings
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...
, has provided World Series television ratings since at least 1963.
[ Key measurements are ''ratings'', the percentage of all U.S. television-equipped households that watched a game, '' share'', the percentage of television sets in use that were tuned to a game, and total viewers (or ''viewership''), the average number of people watching a game throughout its duration.
The highest ratings for an entire World Series is tied between , featuring the ]New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Amer ...
and Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...
, and , featuring the Philadelphia Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...
and Kansas City Royals
The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team was founded as an expans ...
. Both series went six games and averaged a rating of 32.8 and a share of 56.[ Average viewership was slightly larger in 1978 (44,278,950) than in 1980 (42,300,000).][
The lowest ratings for an entire World Series was in , a six-game series won by the ]Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...
over the Tampa Bay Rays
The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East division. Since its inception ...
, which averaged a 5.2 rating and a 12 share; it also had the lowest average viewership, at 9.785 million. Previously, the four-game sweep of the Detroit Tigers
The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...
by the San Francisco Giants
The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Yor ...
was the least watched, averaging a 7.6 rating and a 12 share;[ its average viewership was 12.636 million.]
The highest-rated individual game in World Series history was Game 6 in , when the Philadelphia Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...
defeated the Kansas City Royals
The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team was founded as an expans ...
; the game had a 40.0 rating. The only other games with a rating of 39 or higher were Game 7 in , when the Cincinnati Reds
The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...
defeated the Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...
, with a 39.6 rating,[ and Game 4 in , when the ]Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...
swept the New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Amer ...
, with a 39.5 rating. The most-viewed game was Game 7 in , when the New York Mets
The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...
defeated the Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...
; with a rating of 38.9,[ its viewership is estimated at 55 to 60 million.]
The lowest-rated individual game was Game 3 in , which had a 4.3 rating.[ That game also had the smallest viewership in World Series history, 8.156 million.][ Prior to 2020, the only World Series game with less than 10 million viewers had been Game 3 in , which was impacted by a ]rain delay
Rainout, washout, rain delay, and rain stopped play are terms regarding an outdoor event, generally a sporting event, delayed or canceled due to rain, or the threat of rain. It is not to be confused with a type of out in baseball, though a basebal ...
and had 9.836 million viewers.
The most recent World Series game to record a rating of 30 or higher was Game 7 in , as the Minnesota Twins
The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area w ...
defeated the Atlanta Braves
The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. The Braves ...
; the game had a viewership of 50.340 million.[ Game 7 in between the ]Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...
and Cleveland Indians
The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive F ...
had an average viewership of 40.045 million—the most-watched World Series game in 25 years dating back to 1991—and peaked at 49.9 million viewers, and Fox estimated more than 75 million people watched all or part of the game.
All four major U.S. broadcast television networks (ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
, CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
, NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
, and Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
) have broadcast the World Series. Fox has been the exclusive broadcast network for the World Series since , and has a contract with MLB to carry the World Series through 2028.
Viewership/rating by year
The graph below shows the average rating (in percentage) and average number of viewers (in millions) for each World Series since 1973; older Nielsen records lack average viewer counts.[ For example, the 1973 World Series (the leftmost data points) had an average rating of 30.7 (percentage of all U.S. television-equipped households that watched) and an average viewership of 34.8 (million viewers). This chart shows trending over time; specific figures are available in the television ratings by year section.
]
Least and most viewed World Series
These tables list the World Series with the smallest and largest average viewership (figures in millions) since 1973.[
]
Viewership records for Games 1–7
The following table shows the viewership (figures in millions) records—both largest and smallest—for games one through seven in a World Series since 1973.
Television ratings by year
Figures are expressed as ''ratings/share''. Ratings represent the percentage of U.S. households that watched the game on television. Share represents the percentage of television sets ''in use'' that were tuned to the game.
Source: 1968 through 2007 figures are per Nielsen documents; more recent years per inline citations.
See also
* Super Bowl television ratings
Super Bowl television ratings have traditionally been high. One of the most watched annual sporting events in the world, the NFL's championship game is broadcast in over 130 countries in more than 30 languages. However, viewership is predominantl ...
* NBA Finals television ratings
This is a list of television ratings for NBA Finals in the United States, based on Nielsen viewing data. The highest rated and most watched NBA Finals series was the 1998 NBA Finals between the Chicago Bulls and Utah Jazz, which averaged an 18. ...
* Stanley Cup Finals television ratings
The following is an overview of the television ratings for the National Hockey League (NHL)'s Stanley Cup Finals in both the United States and Canada.
American television
ABC/TNT's coverage (2022–)
The following table shows the ratings f ...
* MLS Cup television ratings
Notes
References
External links
Game-by-game ratings (1968–2007) spreadsheet
via Wayback Machine
The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see ...
Average viewership (1973–2007) spreadsheet
via Wayback Machine
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