The exciting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average was over 16 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
