The exciting extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB stated this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US average was 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, 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.
