The exciting 11-inning clash where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51M spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
