The thrilling 11-inning clash where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached 16.1M. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
