The exciting extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51M watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB reported this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English 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 came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US viewership was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
