The exciting extra-inning contest where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
