The nail-biting extra-inning matchup where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this is the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
