The thrilling extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
