The thrilling extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51 million watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership reached over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
