The exciting extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51 million viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
