The exciting extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51M watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various languages.
