The nail-biting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51M viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this represents the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached over 16 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
