The nail-biting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
