The thrilling extra-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51M viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American viewership reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
