The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51M spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th position.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series averaged 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American average was 16.1M. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
