The thrilling extended contest where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents 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 fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s best playoff performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
