The thrilling extra-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51M watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American average reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
