The thrilling extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51M watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1M. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different tongues.
