The exciting extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51M watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American average reached over 16 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
