The thrilling 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51 million viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US average was over 16 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
