The nail-biting 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51M watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American average was over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
