Fall Classic Final Game Attracts Over 50 Million Audience Members In the United States, Canadian and Japanese Regions.
The exciting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51M watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB announced this represents the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
