Rangers-Diamondbacks World Series ratings were lowest EVER with just 9.11 million viewers tuning in to watch Texas’ victory – down almost three million from last year – making it one of the most unpopular Fall Classics in history

The Texas Rangers’ 5-0 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks for their first-ever championship on Wednesday night drew the largest crowd of this World Series.

However, it wasn’t enough to prevent the five-game series from becoming the least-watched fall classic in recorded TV history.

Nielsen and Fox said Thursday that the World Series averaged 9.11 million viewers, down from the 9.79 million average of the 2020 series, when the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Tampa Bay Rays in six games.

It was a 23 percent drop from last year’s series, when the Houston Astros defeated the Philadelphia Phillies in six games and averaged 11.78 million.

Wednesday night’s game averaged 11.48 million on Fox, a jump of 3 million from Tuesday night’s audience. The total audience on the Fox, Fox Deportes and Fox streaming platforms was 11.64 million.

Wednesday’s Game 5 averaged 11.48 million on Fox, a jump of 3 million from Tuesday’s audience

It was the first audience of more than 10 million for this year’s series. Monday night’s Game 3 set the record for the least-watched World Series game ever with 8.13 million.

The audience peaked at 14.27 million viewers during the final three outs.

Baseball and network executives thought this year’s series might meet a tough audience because of two teams that don’t have much national appeal. The expanded play-offs also meant it was a series that matched the teams with the seventh and eleventh best records.

However, the Rangers are the ninth champions since 2013 and 14 teams qualifying for the Fall Classic in the same period does have some appeal for Fox executives.

“I think it’s a good thing for the health of baseball to have new pennant winners and new champions, new teams playing in the World Series. You don’t want it to be the same market and the same brands every year,” says Fox EVP, Head of Strategy and Analytics Mike Mulvihill.

“But I agree that it is difficult to get a rating in the short term when you have a number of brands together that don’t really have traditional national boards.”

However, the World Series managed to perform better than every entertainment program this year

The World Series attracted 14.27 million viewers during the last three games on Wednesday

Bob Thompson, the retired president of Fox Sports Networks who runs his own consulting group, also saw scheduling and a short-lived series as factors in the low ratings.

“I think the start on Friday night is probably something that baseball would want to look at. It is usually the worst watched night of the week. Then you had a few games that blew up, where people probably dropped out early,” he said. “If there is a chance of someone winning, the numbers are usually high.”

The World Series also continues to outperform any entertainment program. This was the eighth year in a row that this happened.

It was the most watched event four out of five evenings. The only thing that could beat it was “Monday Night Football,” when the Detroit Lions defeated the Las Vegas Raiders.

“Our two hopes and expectations are to cover everything in entertainment and have a long series. We didn’t really get a long series, but in terms of entertainment we still beat everything,” Mulvihill said. “As long as the series continues to do that, it will always be powerful in prime time.”

With the addition of the field clock and shorter games, ratings on the regional sports network increased seven percent for the regular season, with 16 of the 29 U.S.-based teams showing improvement.

National ratings for the regular season increased for Fox/FS1 and TBS, but remained flat for ESPN.