The thrilling extra-inning contest where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51M watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US average was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
