The thrilling extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51M spectators in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this represents the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series drew 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
