The nail-biting 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51M spectators across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase over the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
