The nail-biting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB reported this is the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
