The exciting extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached over 16 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
