The exciting extra-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51M viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
