The nail-biting extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51M spectators across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete American average was over 16 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
