The exciting extended clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
