The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total over 50 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American average was over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
