The nail-biting extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
