The nail-biting 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51M spectators across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached over 16 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
