The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total over 50 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
