The exciting 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this represents the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
