The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US average was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
