The nail-biting extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate over 50 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
