The nail-biting 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined over 50 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
