The nail-biting extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51M spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US average was over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
