The nail-biting extra-inning matchup where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership reached over 16 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff 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 sixteen different languages.
