The nail-biting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
