The thrilling 11-inning contest where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
