The nail-biting extended contest where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51M viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series 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 improvement over the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
