The thrilling 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership reached over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
