The exciting extra-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
