The exciting 11-inning clash where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen different tongues.
