The exciting 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average was over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
