The thrilling extended clash where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51M watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series drew 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
