The exciting 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51M viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership reached 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.
