The nail-biting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run drew a total over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
