The exciting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this marks the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full 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 marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
