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The exciting extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51M spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.

Broadcast Ratings Details

Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.

It also is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.

In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.

Global Audience Numbers

In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.

In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.

Series Totals and Trends

The entire seven-match series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.

Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership reached 16.1 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.

The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.

MLB reported that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.