The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s best postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
