Fall Classic Final Game Captures 51M Viewers In the US, Canadian and Japan Regions.

The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total over 50 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.

Broadcast Viewership Breakdown

The Saturday epic game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.

It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.

In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.

Global Viewership Figures

In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver 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 last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.

Overall Totals and Trends

The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight years.

Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.

The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.

Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.

Jason Powell
Jason Powell

A business strategist with over 15 years of experience in UK enterprise development, specializing in digital transformation and sustainable growth.