The thrilling extra-inning clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51M watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
