The thrilling 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
