The thrilling 11-inning contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run drew a total over 50 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
