The nail-biting extended clash where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51M spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American average reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
