Braves-Astros was 2nd least-watched World Series in modern ratings era

Nov. 4 (UPI) -- More than 14 million people watched the Atlanta Braves win their first Major League Baseball championship in a quarter-century this week and viewership improved overall for the 2021 World Series, according to ratings figures.

There were 14.3 million viewers for Game 6 on Tuesday night, at the end of which Atlanta celebrated its first MLB crown since 1995 over the Houston Astros.

The figure was a significant improvement over the 12.6 million viewers for last year's final game of the World Series.

Over all six games of the MLB championship series, there were an average of 11.75 million viewers per game. For last year's World Series, which saw the Los Angeles Dodgers win their first title in 32 years, that figure was 9.7 million.

While viewership for this year's series between the Braves and Astros improved over 2020, it was well behind fall classics of the past. In fact, the 2021 edition was the second least-watched World Series in the modern ratings era, dating back to the 1970s.

In 2019, there were 23 million viewers for the final game of the series (Astros vs. Nationals) and 17.6 million in 2018 (Red Sox vs. Dodgers). Both series averaged about 14 million viewers per game.

In 2017 (Astros vs. Dodgers) and 2016 (Cubs vs. Indians), average per-game viewership was even higher -- 19 million and 22.8 million, respectively.

The closest average to this year's World Series over the past decade came in 2012, when about 12.6 million viewers each night watched the San Francisco Giants sweep the Detroit Tigers in four games.

The highest average viewership in the modern ratings era was 44.2 million for the 1978 World Series. That year, about 50 million people watched the sixth and final game when the New York Yankees defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers.