Los Angeles • The Houston Astros' seven-game World Series win over the Los Angeles Dodgers averaged 18.9 million viewers on Fox, down 19 percent from the 23.4 million average for the Chicago Cubs' seven-game victory over Cleveland last year for their first title since 1908.
The total audience on Fox's three outlets averaged 19.56 million, the network said Thursday. That included an average of 476,000 viewers on Fox Deportes, up 34 percent from 355,000 last year, and a digital audience average of 183,000 on Fox Sports Go, an increase of 4 percent.
Viewers on Fox were up 37 percent from San Francisco's seven-game win over Kansas City in 2014, which averaged 13.8 million on Fox.
This year's Series averaged a 10.7 rating and 20 share, down from a 13.1/23 last year. That was the highest-rated World Series since 2004, when Boston defeated St. Louis for its first title since 1918.
This was the second-highest rated World Series since the New York Yankees beat Philadelphia over six games in 2009.
Houston's 5-1 win in Game 7 on Wednesday night averaged 29,301,000 on Fox's three outlets, down 28 percent from 40,954,000 for Chicago's 8-7, 10-inning victory over Cleveland in Game 7 last year, the most watched baseball game since Minnesota's 1-0, 10-inning win over Atlanta in Game 7 in 1991.
This year's Game 7 audience included an average of 28,229,000 on the main Fox network, 778,000 on Fox Deportes and 294,000 on Fox Sports Go. The peak was 31,989,000 from 10:30 p.m. to 10:45 p.m. EDT. The audience on Fox Deportes was the highest for a sporting event on U.S. Spanish-language television other than soccer.
Last year's Game 7 averaged 40,045,000 on Fox, 565,000 on Fox Deportes and 344,000 on Fox Sports Go.
The rating is the percentage of television households tuned to a broadcast, and the share is the percentage tuned in among those television households with sets on at the time.
Fox said 106 million viewers watched the Series at some point, down from 115 million last year.
Television ratings were provided to Fox by Nielsen Media Research and the digital audience by Adobe Analytics.