The thrilling extra-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate over 50 million viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB stated this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
