The exciting extra-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51M watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this is the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
