The exciting extended contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51 million spectators across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
