The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51M spectators in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American average reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
