The 2016 World Series was always going to be a tough act to follow, but this year’s Houston-dominant Fall Classic did a remarkable job trying to live up to those ratings highs.Play and viewership culminated during Game 7 on Wednesday night, with the Houston Astros handily overtaking the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-1, and early returns from Nielsen Media have the game shedding more than a quarter of last year’s record haul. On Fox alone, it averaged 28.2 million viewers. That was after averaging a 18.8 overnight rating among metered market households.
It was not the most suspenseful finale that fans or Fox could have asked for. Houston put five runs on the board in the first two innings, and Los Angeles’ one score came in the fifth inning. The game seemed to wrap up pretty quickly after that, a far cry from the extra innings and near-record run times seen earlier in the series.
With streaming and Fox Deportes views factored in, the World Series averaged 29.3 million viewers — peaking, across platforms, with 31.9 million viewers between 10:30 and 10:45 p.m. ET.
