The thrilling extra-inning contest where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this marks the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
