The exciting extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total over 50 million spectators across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series drew over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
