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The thrilling extended clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51M watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.

Broadcast Viewership Breakdown

Last Saturday’s epic game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.

It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.

In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.

Global Viewership Numbers

In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.

In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.

Overall Averages and Trends

The entire seven-game World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight years.

Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.

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

Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.