The exciting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51 million viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this is the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American average reached 16.1M. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
