The thrilling extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
