The thrilling extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51M spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB announced this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
