The nail-biting 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51M watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB reported this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
