The exciting 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series averaged 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
