The exciting extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast 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 drew 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American average was 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
