The Rangers-Diamondbacks World Series ratings are the lowest ever

The World Series concluded Wednesday night when the Texas Rangers stormed the field to celebrate the team’s first-ever championship.

But relatively few people saw the effort it took to get there.

This year’s game between the Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks had the lowest viewership of any World Series since records have been kept, dating back to the 1960s, according to Nielsen.

The five games averaged 9.1 million viewers, supplanting the 2020 World Series, which averaged 9.8 million viewers after a pandemic-shortened season. Additionally, the 2020 World Series was played in a neutral stadium, which deprived the broadcasts of the crowd energy that fuels a championship broadcast.

Monday night’s Game 3 had just 8.12 million viewers, making it the least-watched World Series game since records began being kept. Game 2 only did slightly better, with 8.15 million viewers. The previous low was Game 3 of the 2020 World Series – played between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Tampa Bay Rays – which was watched by 8.34 million.

The decisive fifth match on Wednesday evening had the largest audience of the series: 11.5 million.

The low ratings did not go unnoticed in cities whose teams were eliminated from the play-offs. Just over a week after the Rangers defeated the Houston Astros in the American League Championship Series, The Houston Chronicle stated, “Miss us yet? World Series ratings are down now that the Astros are out of the play-offs.”

Still, the World Series ratings were generally stronger than anything else on network television these days.

Tuesday night’s Game 4, for example, averaged 8.5 million viewers. The next best performer on network television that night was an episode of “The Voice” on NBC, which averaged 5.3 million. On Wednesday, the second most-watched show was an episode of “Survivor,” which drew 4.9 million viewers, less than half of the Game 5 audience.