Atlanta Braves World Series conquest over Houston Astros averages measly 11.75 million viewers

Game six of Atlanta Braves' title-clinching match against the Houston Astros drew in 14.3 million viewers to push the Major League Baseball’s (MLB) 2021 World Series average viewership to 11.75 million.

The win gave the Braves their fourth title.

The 11.75 million average viewers on Fox Sports over the six games is a 21 percent increase on last year’s World Series when the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Tampa Bay Rays.

Last year's six-game series averaged an audience of 9.7 million, with the opening game attracting just 9.1 million viewers, making it the least-watched World Series game ever.

However, the 2021 World Series is the second least-watched in MLB history and way below the pre-pandemic levels in 2019, when an average audience of 14 million viewers watched the Washington Nationals’ seven-game series against the Houston Astros. The seventh game of that series attracted 24 million across all platforms.

The last time the Atlanta Braves won the World Series in 1995, the six-game series averaged 29 million viewers across ABC and NBC.

Despite the low viewership, Fox still gets to generate a revenue of around US$200 million from World Series ad sales.