The thrilling extended contest where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series recorded 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.