The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started 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 innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
