The thrilling extended contest where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
