The exciting 11-inning contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
