The thrilling extended matchup where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51M spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
