The exciting 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
