The thrilling 11-inning clash where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51M spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this represents the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
