The thrilling extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
