The nail-biting extended clash where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51M watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US average reached 16.1 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and the network’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.