The nail-biting extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined over 50 million spectators across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American average reached over 16 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
