The nail-biting extra-inning contest where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51M viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes 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 World Series game after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
