The nail-biting extended matchup where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series averaged 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s best postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
