MLB's TV viewership put in stark perspective on NFL podcast

Speaking on the "This Is Football" podcast recently, NFL podcaster  Kevin Clark dropped eye-popping statistics on the difference in TV viewership between the NFL and MLB. 

TV viewership for the 2023 World Series, won by the Texas Rangers over the Arizona Diamondbacks, averaged 9.11M viewers across five games. That barely beat out the 41.8M people who watched the late afternoon game on Thanksgiving between the Washington Commanders and Dallas Cowboys. 

According to the NFL, it set the Thanksgiving Day record in 2023 with an average of 34.1M viewers across three games — the total of 133M viewers for those games was the second-highest in league history for the holiday, only trailing 2022. 

"You can add up all of the World Series games and the millions of people who watched it and it would be equivalent to not the Super Bowl, not the AFC title game ... it would be equivalent to the amount of people that watched the Thanksgiving Day game between Washington and Dallas," Clark said. "That's what the NFL is." 

In contrast, the 2023 World Series broadcast on Fox set the record for the least-watched World Series since Nielsen began publishing television ratings in 1963. 

Per USA Today, Game 3 of the 2023 World Series was the least-watched Series game of all time (8.13M viewers), barely surpassing the previous low game (2023 Game 2, 8.15M).

The past four years have produced the four least-viewed World Series of all time. 

Clearly, the NFL is king.