The exciting extra-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51M watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
