The exciting extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined over 50 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
