The nail-biting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate over 50 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various languages.
