The exciting extended clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51M spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
