The nail-biting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51M watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American average was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
