The exciting 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US average reached over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
