The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this represents the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
