The thrilling extra-inning clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total over 50 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
