The thrilling 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51M spectators across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average was over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
