The thrilling extended contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51M viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
