The exciting extended clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached 16.1 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s best postseason performance since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
