The nail-biting extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this is the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest secured 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 also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast 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 the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
