The nail-biting extended matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51 million viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
