The nail-biting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this represents the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series drew over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American viewership reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
