The nail-biting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51M viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American average reached 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
