The nail-biting extra-inning contest where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
