The nail-biting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51M viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was over 16 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
