The exciting extra-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate over 50 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this is the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
