The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51M watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
