The thrilling extra-inning clash where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
