The thrilling extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall 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 averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
