The nail-biting extended matchup where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51M viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB stated this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
