The Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks have every reason to view reaching the 2023 World Series as a success. However, the Fall Classic proved to be a massive disappointment for Major League Baseball and TV executives.
Fox has served as the home for the World Series every year since 2000, enjoying massive television ratings for years. In the first decade of having exclusive rights to the Fall Classic, Fox averaged between 15-20 million viewers for each night of its broadcast.
Related: Top MLB free agents 2024
As MLB revenue continued to climb to new record-setting rights and the NFL TV ratings took off, interest in the World Series plummeted. After averaging 16.5 million viewers in 2011 for the Rangers vs St. Louis Cardinals series, it didn’t crack 15 million until 2016. While Fox and MLB hoped that would be the start of a turnaround, numbers have kept plummeting.
Once the Philadelphia Phillies and Houston Astros were eliminated, MLB and Fox executives knew where things were headed. While a Diamondbacks vs Rangers matchup in the Fall Classic was great for storylines, neither team had the national recognition to attract a huge audience.
Related: Highest-paid MLB players
As reported by ESPN, Fo and Nielsen revealed on Thursday that the 2023 World Series averaged 9.11 million viewers. Not only was it a steep drop-off from the numbers a year ago, but it was the least-watched World Series in recorded television history.
World Series ratings by year
- 2016: Chicago Cubs vs Cleveland Guardians – 22.8 million avg. viewers
- 2017: Houston Astros vs Los Angeles Dodgers – 18.9 million avg. viewers
- 2018: Boston Red Sox vs Los Angeles Dodgers -14.1 million avg. viewers
- 2019: Washington Nationals vs Houston Astros – 13.9 million avg. viewers
- 2020: Los Angeles Dodgers vs Tampa Bay Rays – 9.8 million avg. viewers
- 2021: Atlanta Braves vs Houston Astros – 11.7 million avg. viewers
- 2022: Houston Astros vs Philadelphia Phillies – 11.7 million avg. viewers
- 2023: Texas Rangers vs Arizona Diamondbacks – 9.11 million avg. viewers
The interest simply wasn’t there from the start. Game 1 of the 2023 World Series averaged 9.17 million viewers, making it the least-watched opener to the Fall Classic ever. Game 2 (8.15 million viewers) fared even worse, with Game 3 recording a record-low with 8.13 million viewers. Things only slightly rebounded in Game 4 (8.48 million viewers).
Game 5, which saw the Rangers win their first World Series in franchise history, saved the 2023 ratings from being even worse. Nielsen recorded that 11.48 million viewers watched Texas beat Arizona to close out the 2023 World Series, but it was still one of the least-watched close out games in MLB history.
Related: Texas Rangers pull off the improbable, win first World Series title
For comparison, the 2023 NFL Hall of Fame Game averaged 6.3 million viewers in an exhibition contest that a majority of football fans ignored. Meanwhile, Round 1 of the 2023 NFL Draft averaged 11.3 million viewers.