The exciting 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run drew a total over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership 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 recorded 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
