The nail-biting 11-inning contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
