Brewers-Rays Game 5 clincher ends World Series on viewership high note
Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn
The Milwaukee Brewers' World Series clincher on Wednesday made this year's Fall Classic relatively on par with other World Series this decade in viewership, with the usual boost from Nielsen's recent methodology updates.
The Brewers' title-clinching Game 5 win over the Tampa Bay Rays averaged 14.22 million viewers across Fox and Fox Deportes, according to preliminary figures the network released. If the figure holds, Game 5 would be functionally even with last year's Dodgers-Blue Jays Game 5, which averaged 14.30 million viewers, and would surpass all Game 5 audiences between 2019 and 2023.
When including the preliminary figure from Game 5, the full five-game series averaged 11.83 million viewers across Fox, Fox Deportes, and Univision, which would put the series' viewership level with Astros-Phillies in 2022 (11.76 million viewers) and Braves-Astros in 2021 (11.74 million viewers), both of which had six games. Viewership will predictably fall short of Dodgers-Yankees in 2024 (15.10 million viewers) and Dodgers-Blue Jays last year (15.49 million viewers), but will easily surpass Rangers-Diamondbacks in 2023 (9.08 million viewers), the least-watched World Series of all time.
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Of course, given Nielsen's recent methodological changes, this year's World Series was likely less watched than both 2021 and 2022, despite being level with those years on paper. Since then, Nielsen has expanded its out-of-home viewing measurements to cover 100% of the country and also began incorporating its Big Data sample into the top-line viewership figure. Both changes have generally increased viewership for live sports compared to prior years, particularly for major live events like the World Series. However, both the 2021 and 2022 World Series went six games and benefited from higher viewership in Game 6, lifting the overall average.
It's safe to say the Brewers-Rays outperformed expectations, especially since the series went only five games. Before the series, many feared two smaller-market teams with no clear superstars might replicate 2023 viewership levels. That proved not to be the case, with all but one game eclipsing 10 million viewers.
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