The nail-biting extended contest where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51M watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB reported this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s best playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
