The thrilling 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51M viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American average reached 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
