The thrilling extended contest where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51M viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s best playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
