The exciting extra-inning clash where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51M viewers across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US viewership was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s best postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
