The thrilling 11-inning contest where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US average reached over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
