The exciting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this represents the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average 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, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different tongues.
