The exciting 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined over 50 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average reached over 16 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
