The thrilling extended matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51M watchers in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB stated this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
