The thrilling extended clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51M spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US average was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
