The 2022 World Series ended with a thud. The Houston Astros beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-1 in Saturday’s Game 6 to wrap up their second World Championship, and while the game was the most-watched program in primetime, it didn’t propel the series as a whole to another level.
Game 6 ended up drawing 12.549 million viewers on Fox, a drop from Thursday’s Game 5 (which went head to head with Thursday Night Football on Amazon). In fact, this year’s Game 6 was the least-watched Game 6 ever, even falling behind the 2020 pandemic series clincher between the Dodgers and Rays (12.627 million). Last year’s Game 6, the Braves’ clincher over the Astros, averaged 13.986 million viewers on Fox.
The main caveat here is that this year’s Game 6 was on a Saturday night, going head to head with a full slate of college football. Typically, Game 6 takes place on a Tuesday, but the lockout pushed back the start of the series and Game 3’s rainout pushed the rest of the series back a day.
Overall, the 2022 World Series averaged 11.762 million viewers over its six games. That’s the third least-watched ever (or if you’re a positive thinker, the most-watched since 2019), eclipsing 2020 (9.785 million) and 2021 (11.744 million) on Fox. Given that through five games, the series was trending favorably compared to 2019 through the same amount of games, the end result has to be considered a disappointment. Viewership actually dropping from Game 5 to Game 6 was totally unexpected, but a stronger start to the series than a year ago helped keep the 2022 series ahead of 2021.
[Data via ShowBuzz Daily]
About Joe Lucia
I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.