The exciting extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average was 16.1 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
