The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined over 50 million watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.