The exciting 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71M 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 World Series has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
