The thrilling 11-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
