The thrilling extra-inning clash where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
