The nail-biting 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51M viewers across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average was 16.1M. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
