The thrilling extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51M spectators across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US average reached over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
