The exciting extended contest where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51M watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB stated this represents the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American average reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
