The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total over 50 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
