The thrilling extended matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51M watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
