The nail-biting 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American average reached over 16 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
