The thrilling extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series averaged 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
