The Decline in World Series’ Television Ratings

One of the reasons that MLB decided the game needed fixing and rule changes was the decline in World Series ratings.  As per Baseball Almanac (Baseball Almanac – World Series) ratings for the World Series have been in a somewhat steady decline (see table at the bottom of this article for the annual World Series data).  In the 49 years of tracking viewers since 1973, the past three years (2020 – 2022) have shown the lowest number of fans tuning into watch the Fall Classic.

Of course, all sports have suffered somewhat in terms of attendance and viewership due to the pandemic, but baseball’s World Series troubles were on display even before Coronavirus hit the world in 2020. 

Baseball currently hovers just below 12 million viewers, but that is a far cry from the all-time high of 44 million fans watching the Fall Classic back in 1978.  The trend has been so bad that there has only been one World Series in the past 18 years topping 20 million viewers.  That one World Series was in 2016, which featured the intrigue of the Chicago Cubs finally breaking their 108 Championship drought.  Unfortunately, such unique storylines do not come up very often, so it could be a long time before MLB sees such ratings again.

The key question is will changing the rules and shortening games with pitch clocks reverse the declining World Series ratings?  Our feeling here at Baseball Purist is doubtful.  There are many reasons for the decline in ratings but the speed of a game is likely not going to get the average person to now suddenly consider watching the World Series, where before they declined.  Here are the reasons we doubt the rule changes will positively affect the Fall Classic’s television ratings:

Other Options: There are simply an enormous number of other options to watch today and so many other forms of entertainment we can consume as compared to forty years ago.  Where previously we had a handful of TV channels, now we have hundreds and a myriad of streaming choices to watch on our laptops and smart phones.

Not Just MLB has been Affected: The viewership issues have not just impacted MLB’s World Series but even such iconic events as the annual Academy of Motion Picture’s (Oscar’s) award show has seen their ratings plummet over time.  The ratings decline has not just hit the Oscars, but all award shows.  Again see the above reason, since people just have more choices nowadays and you can always find your niche viewing desires out there.

Not so Bad Compared to Other Sport’s Leagues: If we consider MLB’s ratings to the NFL and the Super Bowl then yes things look bleak.  The latest Super Bowl brought in over 112 million viewers or almost ten times more than MLB in 2022.  The NFL is a juggernaut but in some ways, it is a bit of an apples and oranges comparison, but not just for MLB but also the rest of the leagues.  The NFL has ONE championship game for all the marbles.  Perhaps if the other major sport leagues had just one final championship game, then maybe their ratings would rise, but that is a discussion for another time. Although NHL ratings have climbed somewhat over time they still have averaged only 4.4 million viewers over the past 15 years, which is about a third as small as MLB.  The NBA has seen their viewership impacted negatively by Covid.  In 2022, the NBA Championship game averaged 12.4 million viewers but that was down from the past 21-year average of 15 million viewers.  NBA ratings peaked in 2016 and 2017, with 20.2 and 20.4 million viewers respectively tuning into those championship tournaments.  Unfortunately, NBA viewership declined even before the pandemic hit, so that league was and still is dealing with their own rating’s issues.

Endless Season: As we documented in our prior posts Baseball Purist – Too Much of a Good Thing and Baseball Purist – Playoffs for Everyone the ever-expanding playoff format and lengthening of the season over time has diluted the product and likely made fans weary.  At one point a 154 game season over six months with just two playoff teams (World Series participants) has grown to 162 games, over seven months and a 12 playoff tournament. 

These are just some of the reasons that fans have tuned out the World Series, but there are other factors reducing viewership to a quarter of its highest peak from the late 1970’s.  MLB though essentially ignored any other factors affecting baseball, while focusing only on the length of the game as the sole reason fans had tuned out.  We view this strategy as short sighted and one that will not materially change World Series viewership in the long run.

The table below from Baseball Almanac – World Series