The exciting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51M viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston 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 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership reached 16.1M. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
