The thrilling extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51M viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average was over 16 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
