The nail-biting extended matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51M spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
