The thrilling extra-inning contest where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series drew over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average was 16.1M. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various languages.
