The exciting extra-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series averaged 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
