The thrilling extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached over 16 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
