The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB reported this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American average reached 16.1M. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
