The thrilling extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51M spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
