The thrilling extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51M viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average was over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s best postseason performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
