The exciting 11-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51M spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US average reached over 16 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
