The thrilling extended contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate over 50 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
