The exciting extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate over 50 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages 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 represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US average was 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
