The thrilling extended matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
