MLB World Series: Why did baseball’s biggest stage struggle for viewership?
When Brewers and Rays faced off, it marked the first World Series between two of MLB's smallest spenders in 35 years.
The small-market World Series in Major League Baseball wrapped up this week, with the Milwaukee Brewers winning their first title in franchise history.
The title triumph came 44 years after Milwaukee’s only other trip to the Fall Classic, when they lost to the St Louis Cardinals in seven games in 1982.
But beyond the memorable victory, the series’ television ratings made for underwhelming reading, raising questions about baseball’s reach and relevance in a United States sports market dominated by American football and basketball.
Basketball’s 2026 NBA Finals, in which the New York Knicks defeated the San Antonio Spurs 4-1 to end a 53-year drought, attracted a series average of 20.58 million viewers. Game 5 was the most-watched NBA Finals game 5 since 1998, averaging 24.54 million viewers and peaking at 33 million.