The exciting 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51M watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
