The exciting extra-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.
