The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached 16.1 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
