The nail-biting extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51M viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this marks the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
