The nail-biting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership reached 16.1 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
