The exciting extra-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American average reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
