The thrilling extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51M viewers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US average reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
