The exciting extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51M watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
