The thrilling extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51M spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
