The nail-biting extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate over 50 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American average reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
