The thrilling 11-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51M watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
