The thrilling extra-inning clash where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51M spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
