Ratings for Oscars lowest since 2022, saw first year-over-year drop since 2021

The ratings for this year’s Oscars show were the lowest since 2022, showing the first year-over-year decrease in viewership since the pandemic.

Between ABC and Hulu, the 98th Academy Awards brought in 17.86 million viewers, according to Nielsen data cited by The Hollywood Reporter. The figure represents a 9% drop from the 19.69 million Oscars viewers in 2025, and the lowest ratings since 2022, when 16.68 million watched.

The ratings for the Oscars had been rising each year between 2022 and 2026. The last time the ratings dropped from year to year was in 2021, when the ceremony had an all-time low of 10.4 million viewers, according to The Associated Press.

The decline in ratings matches that of the Golden Globes, which had 8.66 million viewers in January, and the Grammys, which had 14.4 million viewers last month. Both awards shows saw a roughly 6% ratings drop compared to 2025, according to Variety. 

This year, the Oscars show also had competition from the World Baseball Classic. On Sunday night, the U.S. went up against the Dominican Republic in the tournament’s semifinal.

A record 7,369,000 people watched the game on the FS1 and Fox Deportes cable channels, according to Fox Sports.

By the time game ended in a 2-1 victory for the U.S., it was the most-watched WBC telecast ever and FS1’s most-watched telecast since 2019, the 9th highest overall in the channel’s history, according to Fox Sports.

The U.S. went on to lose in the World Baseball Classic final to Venezuela on Tuesday night, 3-2. Fox Sports has not yet released the viewer numbers for that game, which aired on Fox and on Fox Deportes for Spanish-language viewers.