The thrilling extended clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51M watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series drew 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
