The exciting 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
