The thrilling 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
