The nail-biting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total over 50 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
