The nail-biting extra-inning clash where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
