The nail-biting extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51M viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB reported this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American average reached over 16 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
