The nail-biting 11-inning clash where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason 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.
