The exciting extended contest where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
