The exciting 11-inning contest where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB reported this represents the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
