The thrilling extended clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined over 50 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB reported this is the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
