The exciting 11-inning clash where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this represents the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
