The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51M viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this represents the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
