The exciting extra-inning clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51M spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different tongues.
