The thrilling extra-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average was 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
