World Series ratings dive despite memorable milestones

This year's World Series was unlike any of its 115 predecessors－both in terms of brilliant performances on the field and fan apathy off it.

The Los Angeles Dodgers nailed down their sixth MLB championship by beating the Tampa Bay Rays 3-1 on Oct 27, but despite more than a dozen all-time individual and team records being set in the six-game thriller, it never translated into the TV ratings success expected to carry over from the pandemic-shortened 60-game regular season.

With six games in seven nights, the average World Series viewership rating was 32 percent below the previous low.

Game 6 drew just 12.6 million viewers in the US, according to Associated Press. That made it the most-watched game, but also cemented an ignominious record for this year's Fall Classic, which ended up averaging 9.7 million viewers per game, shattering the previous record for lowest average viewership: 12.7 million when the San Francisco Giants swept the Detroit Tigers in 2012.

After drawing 9.1 million viewers for Game 1, the Dodgers and Rays attracted audiences ranging from 8.1-10 million, eclipsing the previous record low (9.8 million in 2008) four times.

The woeful numbers have dredged up considerable debate on US social media, with theories ranging from "baseball is too boring" to "too many strategies" to explain the lack of fan interest, despite several memorable milestones:

- The Dodgers used seven pitchers in their Game 6 victory, the most ever used by a winning team in a nine-inning World Series clincher and tied with the 1992 Toronto Blue Jays, who won the title in an 11-inning clincher.

- Game 6 also set a record for strikeouts in a nine-inning World Series game (27), breaking the mark previously shared by the Mets and Yankees in 2000 and the Dodgers and Yankees in 1963.

- The Dodgers and Rays combined to hit 21 home runs in this year's series, tied for the third-most in any Fall Classic. The Dodgers blasted 12 round-trippers, tied with the 1956 Yankees for third-most.

Baseball is not alone in seeing fewer viewers tune in.

The National Basketball Association finals, which wrapped up on Oct 13 with the Los Angeles Lakers' victory over the Miami Heat, averaged just 7.5 million viewers over the six games on ABC, a 51 percent decline from last year, and viewership for last month's National Hockey League Stanley Cup Final was down a staggering 61 percent on NBC.

According to AC Nielsen ratings data, 76.2 million Americans were watching TV on the first five nights of the NBA Finals this year－a 10 percent decline from 2019－with only one in 10 tuned in to the games.

Industry experts say declining TV numbers across all major sports reflect broader trends in entertainment consumption, including consumers canceling cable TV subscriptions and watching more on-demand content online.