The nail-biting 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51M viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in Japan 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% increase over last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
