The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51M watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
