The exciting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
