The thrilling extended clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51M spectators in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
