The nail-biting extended clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate over 50 million viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US average was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
