The exciting extra-inning contest where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51M watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed last 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 Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
