The nail-biting extra-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American average was over 16 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
