The thrilling 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51 million viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series averaged 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
