The thrilling 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51M watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
