The thrilling 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this marks the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different tongues.
