The exciting extended contest where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American average reached over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
