The nail-biting extra-inning contest where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51 million watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American average reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
