The thrilling extended clash where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB announced this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American average reached over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
