The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this is the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average was 16.1 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen different tongues.
