The thrilling extended contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and the network’s best postseason performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
