The thrilling 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate over 50 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US average was over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
