The exciting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
