The nail-biting extended matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51M viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average was over 16 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
