The exciting 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51M watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33M viewers 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 also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
The full seven-match series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
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