Fall Classic Final Game Captures Over 50 Million Viewers Across the US, Canadian and Japanese Regions.
The nail-biting extended matchup where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51M viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series averaged 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
