The thrilling extra-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen different tongues.
