The exciting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 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 additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
