The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51 million spectators across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
