The exciting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total over 50 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
