The nail-biting extended clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This followed last 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 Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
