The nail-biting extended clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US average reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
