The thrilling 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
