Game 1 of the World Series between the Texas Rangers and the Arizona Diamondbacks was a thrilling encounter, but it seems that the viewership numbers didn’t quite match the excitement.
The opening match of the Fall Classic registered the lowest viewership for a World Series Game 1 in history, with just 9.18 million viewers, according to Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal. The previous record low for Game 1 viewership was during the pandemic-shortened 2020 World Series, which had 9.27 million viewers.
As the Rangers and Diamondbacks continue the World Series with Game 3, tied at 1-1, Major League Baseball and Fox Sports may be hoping for a more extended series, with six or seven games. Otherwise, they could be facing a significant drop in TV viewership.
Fox’s coverage of Game 1 of the Texas Rangers vs. Arizona Diamondbacks garnered an average of 9.17 million viewers, according to Sports Media Watch, making it the least-watched Game 1 in the history of the Fall Classic. Notably, it even fell below the viewership for the comparable Game 1 during the 2020 “Bubble” World Series, which was held during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
World Series Game 1 is lowest rated and least-watched ever, including the 2020 "bubble." More details to come. https://t.co/k1h0DCisNU
— Sports Media Watch (@paulsen_smw) October 30, 2023
TV ratings for the World Series have been on a declining trend over the years, as baseball has become more of a regional rather than a national TV attraction. The absence of major national stars and teams from prominent TV markets in the Fall Classic likely contributes to this trend.
While there aren’t any major-market teams like the New York Yankees or the Los Angeles Dodgers in this year’s postseason, the record-low numbers for Game 1 came as a bit of a surprise.
In this dramatic 11-inning showdown, the Texas Rangers emerged victorious with a 6-5 win over the Diamondbacks, thanks to Adolis Garcia’s walk-off home run. Notably, Garcia’s performance made him the all-time MLB leader for RBIs in a single postseason with 22, surpassing the previous record set by David Freese in 2011. Garcia also became the second player in MLB history to hit a walk-off home run in his World Series debut and is tied for the second-most home runs in a single postseason in league history, falling just one short of Randy Arozarena.
This Game 1 was already incredibly entertaining before the late-game heroics, as the Diamondbacks posed a consistent challenge to Nathan Eovaldi, creating chaos on the basepaths and delivering clutch hits from standout players like Corbin Carroll and Ketel Marte, with Tommy Pham also adding a home run to the mix.
