The thrilling 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached 16.1M. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
