The nail-biting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total over 50 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB reported this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
