The exciting extended contest where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51M watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
