The thrilling 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51M spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s best playoff performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
