The nail-biting extra-inning clash where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51M watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
