The exciting extra-inning matchup where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American average was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
