The nail-biting 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series drew over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
