The thrilling 11-inning clash where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51M watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after 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 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
