The exciting 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51M viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership reached over 16 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.