The nail-biting extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51M watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US average was over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
