The thrilling 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined over 50 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s best postseason performance after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
