The thrilling 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
