The nail-biting 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51M watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
