The nail-biting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51M viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American viewership was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.