The thrilling extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined over 50 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB stated this marks the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
