The nail-biting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French 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 deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
