The thrilling 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined over 50 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American average reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
