The exciting 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51M watchers in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
