The thrilling extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
