The nail-biting extra-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
