The exciting extended contest where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51M spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB stated this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
