The exciting extended matchup where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run drew a total over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this marks the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership was over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
