The nail-biting extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total over 50 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
