The thrilling extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51 million viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US average was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s best postseason performance since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
