The nail-biting extended contest where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate over 50 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US average was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
