The thrilling extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51M viewers across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this is the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US average was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
