The nail-biting 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run drew a total over 50 million viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership reached 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
