The exciting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51M spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached 16.1M. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and the network’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
