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The thrilling extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51 million spectators across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.

Television Viewership Details

Last Saturday’s epic contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.

It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.

In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th place.

International Viewership Numbers

In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.

In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.

Overall Totals and Trends

The full seven-match series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight years.

Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American average was 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.

The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.

Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.