The exciting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership reached 16.1M. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
