The thrilling extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51M viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, 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 top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
