The thrilling extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total over 50 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US average reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
