The nail-biting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51M watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
