The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total over 50 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
