The nail-biting 11-inning contest that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate over 50 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
