The exciting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this represents the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason performance after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
