2021 World Series Ratings

Below are the Nielsen ratings for the 2021 World Series. The games successfully avoided continuing the downward trend of the last few years, instead seeing a nice rise from last year. The six-game series averaged a 6.5 HH rating, up from 5.2 for the 2020 series, a 2.66 adults 18-49 rating, up slightly from 2.50 last year, and 11.74 million viewers, up from 9.79 million.

Where the series struggled though was with younger males. The 2021 series tied 2020's ratings-low in men 18-49 (3.2 rating) and logged a new low in men 18-34 (2.0), down 3 tenths from last year. On a positive note, every game this year averaged above 10 million viewers, and game 6 finished with the biggest audience (13.97 million) since 2019's game 7 (23.22 million).

In local market ratings, Atlanta slightly edged out Houston in the six-game average with a 27.8 rating, versus 25.4. Atlanta delivered its strongest numbers in game 6 (33.5/54) and beat out Houston in every game except game 2 (27.4/50 to 23.3/42). Though Houston's ratings were down significantly from the Astros' last appearances in the games (42.7/63 in 2019's game 7 loss), Atlanta was actually on par with the Braves' last appearance (34.5/46 in 1999's game 4 loss). 

2020 World Series Ratings

The 2020 World Series was the lowest rated and lowest viewed Series on record. The six-game series averaged just a 5.2/12 rating/share among households, down from 8.1/16 for the Nationals/Astros series last year, and 9.785 million viewers, also down from last year (13.959 million). Additionally, Game 3 of the series was officially the lowest-rated (4.3/10) and lowest-viewed (8.156 million) World Series game of all time.

The final game did pull relatively okay numbers at 6.8/15 among households, a 3.4 adults 18-49 rating, and 12.627 million viewers. It was also the youngest-skewing game of the series with a median age of 54.8 which helped lower the series average to 56.2 - tying 2018 as the second oldest audience ever (only 2019's 56.9 was older). 

In the local markets, Los Angeles averaged a 21.2/40 rating share over the six games, including 27.5/48 for game 6 which was actually higher than any of the 2018 World Series games, and the highest for any Dodgers game since game 7 of the 2017 World Series (36.7/56). 

Tampa averaged a 15.2/29 over the six games including a 18.2/33 for game 6 which was the highest for a Rays game since the final game of the 2008 World Series (29.8/42) where the Rays lost to the Phillies.

World Series Ratings (1968-2021)

UPDATED 2022: Below are the Nielsen ratings for the last 53 World Series match-ups. Below are the Nielsen ratings for the last 11 years of World Series games. From 1991 to present, game-by-game data is provided for the following metrics: local markets, household (HH) ratings, men 18-49, men 18-34, median age, and total viewers. Adults 18-49 data is available from 1998 onwards. Local market ratings for both of the competing teams are provided for most games though there are a few missing. The color-coding works as follows: all of the local market ratings are compared against each other, all of the household (HH) ratings are compared against each other, and the same for A18-49, M18-49, M18-34, Median age, and total viewers. Overall, the "greener" the chart, the better the ratings. From 1968 through 1990 the only data available is the HH rating, total number of households, and total viewers. I will continue to try and dig up data for games before 1968, but they are not easy to find.

Note: Canadian viewership is provided for all of the 1992 and 1993 games as the Toronto Blue Jays were a competing team and Nielsen did not measure local ratings in Canada. Additionally, note that the Atlanta local market ratings in 1992 are from Arbitron, not Nielsen as there was no Nielsen local data made available that year.