The exciting 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51M watchers in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
