The exciting extended contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51M spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, 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 viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
