The thrilling 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51M viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average was over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
