The exciting extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, 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 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6 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 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
