The exciting extended clash where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
