The thrilling extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51M viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average was over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
