The thrilling extended clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
