page_title: World Series television ratings
hierarchical_section_title: World Series television ratings
caption_attribution_description: Fans cheer on the Nationals during Game 5 of the MLB World Series between the Washington Nationals and the Houston Astros baseball teams on Sunday evening, Oct 27, 2019, at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. (Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks)
context_page_description: Audience measurement by Nielsen Media Research, commonly referred to as Nielsen ratings, 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, the average number of people watching a game throughout its duration.
  The highest ratings for an entire World Series is tied between 1978, featuring the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers, and 1980, featuring the Philadelphia Phillies and Kansas City Royals. Both series went six games and averaged a rating of 32.8 and a share of 56. Average viewership was slightly larger in 1978 than in 1980.
  The lowest ratings for an entire World Series was in 2012, a four-game sweep of the Detroit Tigers by the San Francisco Giants, which averaged a 7.6 rating and a 12 share, with an average viewership of 12.636 million.
  The highest-rated individual game in World Series history was Game 6 in 1980, when the Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Kansas City Royals; the game had a 40.0 rating.
context_section_description: Audience measurement by Nielsen Media Research, commonly referred to as Nielsen ratings, 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 1978, featuring the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers, and 1980, featuring the Philadelphia Phillies and Kansas City Royals. 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 2012, a four-game sweep of the Detroit Tigers by the San Francisco Giants, which averaged a 7.6 rating and a 12 share, with an average viewership of 12.636 million.
  The highest-rated individual game in World Series history was Game 6 in 1980, when the Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Kansas City Royals; the game had a 40.0 rating. The only other games with a rating of 39 or higher were Game 7 in 1975, when the Cincinnati Reds defeated the Boston Red Sox, with a 39.6 rating, and Game 4 in 1963, when the Los Angeles Dodgers swept the New York Yankees, with a 39.5 rating. The most-viewed game was Game 7 in 1986, when the New York Mets defeated the Boston Red Sox; with a rating of 38.9, its viewership is estimated at 55 to 60 million.
  The lowest-rated individual game was Game 4 in 2019, which had a 5.9 rating, falling below the 6.1 rating of Game 3 in 2008 and Game 3 in 2012. Game 3 in 2008 had the smallest viewership in World Series history, 9.836 million, as a rain delay moved the start of the game to after 10 p.m. on the East Coast with the game not ending until 1:47 a.m.
  The most recent World Series game to record a rating of 30 or higher was Game 7 in 1991, as the Minnesota Twins defeated the Atlanta Braves; the game had a viewership of 50.340 million. Game 7 in 2016 between the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians 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, CBS, NBC, and Fox) have broadcast the World Series. Fox has been the exclusive broadcast network for the World Series since 2000, and has a contract with MLB to carry the World Series through 2028.
caption: Nationals Park during Game 5 of the 2019 World Series, one of the lowest-rated and least-watched games in World Series history.
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