The nail-biting extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51M viewers across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this represents the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
