The thrilling extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
