The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51 million spectators across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s best playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
