The thrilling 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51M viewers across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this is the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average was over 16 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
