The thrilling 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate over 50 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s best playoff performance since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
