The nail-biting extra-inning clash where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
