The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s best postseason performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
