The thrilling 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51M viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this represents the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable game averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US average reached 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
