The World Series opener between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros narrowly averted setting a record low.
Washington’s 5-4 victory Tuesday night averaged 12,194,000 television viewers, according to national numbers from Nielsen. That edges the 12,191,000 who tuned in for San Francisco’s 7-1 win over Kansas City in the 2014 opener.
The numbers are down 11.4% from last year’s Game 1 between the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers, which averaged 13.76 million viewers.
The 2017 opener between Houston and LA averaged 14.7 million viewers.
The game Tuesday still won the night for Fox. It was also the most-watched game of the postseason, surpassing the 7.47 million who watched Saturday’s Game 6 of the AL Championship Series between Houston and the New York Yankees.
According to Major League Baseball, the League Championship Series averaged 5.15 million viewers, which is down slightly from the 5.31 million average last season.