The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was over 16 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
