The nail-biting 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51M spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
