I am somewhat surprised by the World Series Ratings drop.

Over five games, the 2018 World Series averaged 14.3 million viewers. That is a drop off of 23% compared to the 2017 average of 18.7 million. In fairness, the 2017 World series–which also featured the Dodgers–ran all the way to Game 7 so the comparison is an imperfect one. This year was also the least watched World Series since 2014, when the San Francisco Giants and the Kansas City Royals averaged 13.9 million viewers over seven games.

The 2018 World Series is thus far the fourth-least watched since 2010, with the most-watched being the Chicago Cubs versus Cleveland Indians series in 2016, which averaged 22.9 million viewers thanks to the Cubs ending their historic 100-plus year championship drought.

Game 5 was the most-watched game of the Series, however, averaging 17.6 million viewers. That is also up 29% over the viewership for Game 4.

Part of it is people like to watch deciding games, and there was only one of those in this series.

I also wonder how much of this has to do with the continued success of the Red Sox. Without the curse, are they seen as just another regional team? They pretty much dominate their World Series appearances, 12-3 in their four twenty first century championships. People used to tune in to see how they would blow their chance for a championship. Now they just blow through opponents.

There also was no Cinderella team this season. We’ve had a number of teams in the last 15 years break long droughts, starting with the Red Sox in 2004. Even though the Dodgers have not won a World Series in 30 years, they are not thought of in the same light as the Royals in 2015, or the Astros, Cubs, Giants, White Sox, and Red Sox ending very long droughts.