The nail-biting 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51M viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American viewership reached 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various languages.
