The thrilling extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total over 50 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
