The nail-biting extended contest where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51M spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.