The nail-biting 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
