The thrilling extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
