The exciting extended clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51M viewers in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this is the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
