The nail-biting extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51M watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US average was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
