The nail-biting extra-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate over 50 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series recorded 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 ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete American average reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
