The thrilling extended clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51 million viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB stated this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
