The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
