The thrilling 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total over 50 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American average reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.
