The nail-biting extended clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
