UPDATE: U.S. viewership for the first two games of the World Series has dropped a staggering 14% compared to last year, according to a report from Major League Baseball (MLB). This year’s games, featuring the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays, averaged just 12.5 million viewers across various platforms, including Fox and Univision.
Despite this decline, audiences in Canada and Japan have set record viewership numbers, indicating a significant shift in the global appeal of the Series. The 2022 World Series games drew an average of 14.55 million viewers when the Dodgers faced off against the New York Yankees.
The first game of this year’s Series, where the Blue Jays triumphed with an emphatic 11-4 victory, attracted 13.3 million viewers. However, Game 2, where the Dodgers secured a 5-1 win, saw a drop to 11.63 million viewers. Notably, these figures do not include Univision’s audience.
MLB’s combined total of 32.6 million viewers for the opener across the U.S., Canada, and Japan marks the highest total since the Chicago Cubs broke their 108-year championship drought in 2016.
In Canada, Game 1 pulled in 7 million viewers, while Game 2 attracted 6.6 million, making them the most-watched Blue Jays games on Sportsnet. This network is owned by Rogers Communications Inc., the parent company of the Blue Jays. The opener also featured French-language commentary on TVA Sports, drawing 502,000 viewers, a record for that network.
In Japan, Game 1 averaged 11.8 million viewers on NHK-G, marking the most-viewed World Series game ever broadcast by a single network in the country. Game 2 also performed well, averaging 9.5 million viewers on NHK-BS, leading to a two-game average of 10.7 million in Japan.
The dip in U.S. viewership raises questions about the changing landscape of sports fandom and broadcasting. With the ongoing trend of fluctuating viewership numbers, MLB officials will be closely monitoring the situation as the series progresses.
As we await further developments, analysts are eager to see how the viewership trends evolve in the coming games. Stay tuned for updates on this rapidly changing story.
