The exciting extra-inning clash where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. 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 and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
