The nail-biting extended contest where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51M watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US viewership reached 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
