The thrilling extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate over 50 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB reported this is the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached 16.1 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
