The thrilling extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US average reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
