The exciting extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American average reached 16.1M. The overall 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 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
