The thrilling extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51M watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s best playoff performance after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
