The exciting extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate over 50 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series drew 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average was over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
