The exciting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
