The exciting 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
