The thrilling extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US average was over 16 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
