The nail-biting extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51M viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
