The nail-biting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total over 50 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American average was over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.