The exciting extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached 16.1M. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
