The thrilling 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51M viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB stated this is the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached over 16 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
