The nail-biting 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US average reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s best postseason performance after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
