The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total over 50 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
