The thrilling extra-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51M viewers across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
