The thrilling extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51M spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. 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 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
