The exciting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51M watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase over the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US average was over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
