The nail-biting extended matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership reached 16.1 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
