The nail-biting extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB reported this is the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
