The exciting 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate over 50 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average was 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
