The thrilling 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined over 50 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s best playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
