The thrilling extra-inning contest where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51M watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
