Milwaukee Brewers: Jackson Chourio ties World Series record held by Ty Cobb in Game 3

While viewership for the World Series Game 1 between the Tampa Bay Rays and Milwaukee Brewers fell slightly compared to recent years fueled by Los Angeles Dodgers, it still surpassed several other World Series games this decade, according to Sports Business Journal. The average audience for the Rays-Brewers matchup on Fox and Univision was 12.2 million viewers, a dip from last year's Game 1 (13.3 million for Dodgers-Blue Jays) and the record-breaking 15.2 million viewers for the 2024 World Series between Dodgers and Yankees.

However, it still outperformed the 2023 Rangers-Diamondbacks Series, which had the lowest viewership at 9.4 million, and the 2022 Astros-Phillies (11.7 million) and 2021 Braves-Astros (11.1 million) games. The final numbers, which include Nielsen's new Big Data measurements, may raise the figures even further. Despite the Rays and Brewers being less appealing teams, Friday's audience peaked just over 13 million viewers, a promising sign for MLB and Fox, especially considering the series could have mirrored last year's performance.

Baseball's momentum and Nielsen's methodological changes, such as expanding out-of-home viewing and implementing Big Data sampling, have generally boosted live sports viewership compared to previous standards. The audience data also indicates that Fridays and Saturdays are now less underwhelming compared to the past when Nielsen only tracked in-home viewing.

Since 2022, MLB has shifted the World Series to a Friday start to dodge NFL competition, and the Friday audiences have matched Tuesday audiences from the previous four years. Now, MLB and Fox have to hope the Rays can secure a win or two at home against the Brewers to avoid a sweep.