The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
