The nail-biting extra-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
