The exciting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined over 50 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series averaged 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership was 16.1 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 recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
