The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
