The nail-biting extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 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 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
