The exciting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51M spectators across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% 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.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American average was over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
