The nail-biting extended clash where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51M viewers in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
