The exciting extra-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51M viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s best postseason performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
