The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51M spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase over the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average was 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
