The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total over 50 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
