The thrilling 11-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run drew a total over 50 million watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
