The exciting 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
