The exciting extra-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined over 50 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this is the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US average reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various languages.
