The nail-biting extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US average was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various languages.
