The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate over 50 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff performance after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
