The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB stated this marks the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.