The exciting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51M spectators in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this represents the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
