The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined over 50 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic 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 Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American average was over 16 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
