The nail-biting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete American average was 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
