The exciting extended clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was over 16 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
