The exciting extended clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate over 50 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB reported this marks the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was over 16 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various languages.
