The nail-biting extended contest where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US average reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
