The nail-biting extra-inning contest where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
