The nail-biting extra-inning clash where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total over 50 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this is the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
