The thrilling extended contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51M watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
