The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American average was 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
