The nail-biting 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined over 50 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
