The nail-biting extra-inning clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
