The exciting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average was 16.1M. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.