The thrilling 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51M watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
