The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined over 50 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American average was over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
