The nail-biting extended clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51M watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
