The thrilling extended clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB announced this is the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series drew over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
