The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
