The exciting extra-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51M spectators in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s 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 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American average reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
