The nail-biting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB announced this represents the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US average was 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
