The nail-biting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51M viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
