The exciting extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
