The exciting extra-inning clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51M watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete American average was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
