The thrilling 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this represents the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.
