The nail-biting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
