The exciting 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series drew over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
