The exciting 11-inning contest where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total over 50 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB stated this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
