The exciting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51M viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American viewership was 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
