The exciting extra-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
