The thrilling 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51M watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
