The nail-biting extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US average was 16.1M. 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 the network’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
