The thrilling extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
