World Series Final Game Captures 51M Viewers In the United States, Canadian and Japan Regions.
The exciting extra-inning clash where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51M viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
