The exciting extra-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
