The nail-biting extended matchup where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51M watchers in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
