The thrilling extra-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American viewership was over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
