The thrilling extended clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total over 50 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American average was over 16 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
