The exciting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51M spectators in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was 16.1 million. 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 recorded 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
