The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51M viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
