The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB reported this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American average was 16.1 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
