The nail-biting extra-inning clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51M viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB reported this is the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series drew over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
