The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB announced this is the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
