The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American 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 drew 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
