The nail-biting 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB reported this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
