The exciting 11-inning clash where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined over 50 million watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
