The thrilling extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51 million viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series averaged 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.