The nail-biting extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American average reached 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
