The thrilling extended clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
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 highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and the network’s best postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
