The nail-biting 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB reported this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US average reached over 16 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
