The nail-biting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51M spectators across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada 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 drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
