The exciting extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M viewers across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB announced this is the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US average reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
