The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.