The thrilling 11-inning contest that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached 16.1M. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different tongues.
