The thrilling extended matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series averaged 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete American average reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
