The thrilling extra-inning clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51M watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
