The nail-biting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
