The exciting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51M watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was over 16 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.
