The thrilling extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average reached 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s best playoff performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
