The exciting 11-inning clash where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
