The nail-biting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total American average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
