The nail-biting 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason performance since 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
