The thrilling extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total over 50 million viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this represents the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports 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 matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
