The exciting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51M spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
