The thrilling 11-inning clash where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51M spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
