The thrilling extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American average reached 16.1M. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s best postseason performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
