The thrilling extra-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB reported this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
