The nail-biting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined over 50 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
