The nail-biting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51M watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
