The thrilling 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US average reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different tongues.
