World Series Final Game Draws 51M Audience Members Across the United States, Canada and Japanese Markets.
The exciting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
