The thrilling 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate over 50 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable game averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
