The thrilling extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51M viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
