The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total over 50 million viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American average was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
