The exciting extra-inning matchup where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US average was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
