The exciting 11-inning contest where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate over 50 million spectators across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership reached 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
