The nail-biting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51M viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached 16.1M. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
