The thrilling extended clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US average reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
