The nail-biting extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB reported this marks the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started 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 Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
