The exciting extended matchup where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51M viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
