The nail-biting 11-inning contest that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total over 50 million watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB reported this represents the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US average reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
