The exciting 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51M viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
