The thrilling extra-inning clash where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
