The thrilling extra-inning clash where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership reached 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and the network’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
