The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
