The exciting extra-inning contest where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.
