The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51 million watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this represents the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s best playoff performance after 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
