The exciting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
