The thrilling 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB stated this marks the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average reached over 16 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
