The nail-biting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen different tongues.
