The nail-biting extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB announced this is the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
