The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51M viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
