The thrilling extended matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51M watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
