The exciting extra-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average reached over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s best playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
