The nail-biting 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American average was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
