The nail-biting 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51M spectators across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
