The exciting extra-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete American average was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
