The thrilling extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51 million viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series averaged 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership was over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and the network’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
