The nail-biting extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American average reached 16.1 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
