The thrilling 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51M viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
