The exciting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51M watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this is the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
