The thrilling extended clash where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51M spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American average was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
