The nail-biting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51M viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to 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 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership was 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
