The exciting 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51M viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
