The exciting 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total over 50 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete American average was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
