The exciting 11-inning contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51M watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
