The thrilling 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average was 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
