The exciting 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership reached 16.1M. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
