The thrilling extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a total over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest secured 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 additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US viewership reached 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.
