The exciting 11-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this is the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average was 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
