The thrilling extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run drew a total over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada after 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 a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason 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 different languages.
