The exciting extended contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
