The exciting extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate over 50 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB reported this represents the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American average reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
