The thrilling extended clash where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51M watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average was 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
