The nail-biting 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this marks the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
