The exciting extended contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and the network’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
