The thrilling extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB reported this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding 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 matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
