The exciting extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached 16.1M. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various languages.
