The exciting 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total over 50 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average was over 16 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
