The thrilling extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US average was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
