The exciting extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate over 50 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American average reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various languages.
