The thrilling extra-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB reported this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American average reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
