The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American viewership was 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
