The thrilling 11-inning clash where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership was over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
