The thrilling extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51M watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the 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 Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – 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-game World Series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
