The thrilling 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51 million viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB reported this represents the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
