The thrilling extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51 million viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
