The nail-biting 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
