The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a total over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where 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.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
