The nail-biting extra-inning clash where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this marks the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started 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 frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American average was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
