The nail-biting extra-inning matchup where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined over 50 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
