The nail-biting 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined over 50 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this represents the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American average was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
