The thrilling 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined over 50 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports 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 is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents 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, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series averaged 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.
