The thrilling 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US average reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
