The exciting extra-inning clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51M spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1M. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance since 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
