The nail-biting extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51M spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
