The nail-biting extended clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB stated this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes 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 Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total American average was over 16 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
