The nail-biting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average was 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
