The nail-biting 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51M viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US average was over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
