The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51M spectators across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
