The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership reached 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
