The nail-biting 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this marks the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1M. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
