The exciting 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series recorded 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American average reached over 16 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
