The thrilling extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51M viewers across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
