The exciting extended contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51M viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
