The nail-biting extended matchup where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51M watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
