The thrilling 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global 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 broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
