The thrilling extended contest where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
