The thrilling extra-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete American average was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
