The nail-biting extra-inning clash where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51M viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US average was 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s best playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
