The thrilling extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51M watchers in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
