The thrilling extended clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51M viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
