The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51 million viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership was 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
