The nail-biting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51M viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this represents the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American average reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
