The nail-biting extra-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total over 50 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
