The thrilling extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined over 50 million watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
