The exciting extended matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average was 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
