The exciting extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this is the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew over 27 million audience members 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 also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American average was over 16 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
