The exciting extra-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB reported this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series drew over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
