The nail-biting extra-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
